Star Wars: Light of the Dark Side
by Lewascan2
Summary: Ahsoka Tano has been having nightmares since she left the Jedi Order, dreams she thinks are something more. If that wasn't enough, she has remembered ALL of her time on Mortis, and the Dark side calls for her strongly. Now, she is forced to either find her own balance in the Force or be consumed by it. The Force isn't all black and white. The Sith can attest to that.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Don't own Star Wars. All belongs to Lucasarts, except my OCs if any are in here at all... Meh.**

**AN: This idea has been circulating in my head for a while, so here we go! Let's do this thing!**

Ch 1: Premonitions

* * *

**1 Month Since Leaving the Jedi:**

Padawan -wait, scratch that. _Former Padawan,_ Ahsoka Tano, sighed piteously. _'Bored,'_ she thought. As the sun rose on a new morning in Coruscant, the 16 year old Togruta sat atop a tall building across from the front of the Jedi temple, legs crossed in an attempt at settling herself. Meditation. Was. Not. Her. Shtick.

But then again, she was far too stressed to meditate properly. It had been a month and two weeks, give a few days, since Ahsoka had left the Jedi Order, and it had been _no_ party. _That_ she would attest to. She considered herself lucky at having found a small job as a restaurant waitress, even luckier at the fact that the place was run by an amicable and kind chef. It really was amazing to her how much each Jedi relied on the Order for funds, now that she thought about it. Even so, she still barely made enough to live off of; it was pretty pathetic.

Yet another thing Jedi didn't contemplate. Oh _right_, she wasn't a Jedi anymore! Ahsoka had chosen to rebuff the Council's attempts at accepting her back into the Order. _Accepting her._ Bah. They actually had the gall to blame their own ignorance and stupidity on the 'will of the Force', calling it her _great trial_.

Her faith in the Jedi and their teachings had been shaken dramatically by their betrayal. Loyal to their own? Sure didn't seem that way. How quick they were to judge, to condemn without making any true effort of their own to save her. What the kriff could the _Senate_ know about Jedi matters and the Force? _Whoops_, those kinds of thoughts led to the Dark side. She wasn't acting any better than they had. Another sigh.

The Dark side... That was yet another thing that worried her. She had felt its pull several times during her venture to clear her name, and yet again earlier this morning. The nightmares had started the same night she left. They were vivid but vague; although, some scattered bits became clearer, as they went on. She had come to conclude that they were most likely visions. She hadn't approached any Jedi about them though. Call her petty, but Ahsoka wanted to do this one thing on her own.

_Two blue blades clashing in a sea of darkness. Jedi maybe? There had been more, but she didn't remember any of it. Eventually one snuffed the other out._

The second week had somehow seemed terrifying, even though she couldn't make out anything.

_The same sea of inky blackness. Many vibrant rods of all varied colors and sizes stood out. Lightsabers, obviously. Then, there was a single, blue one, suddenly alit in their center, glowing with something. Malice? Hatred? Foreboding. The blue proceeded to clash with each saber, and each one was snuffed out in a second. What?_

_This continued on, till none were left, but those that scattered. And those that scattered were brought down a second later by flashes of blue and red._

_After this, was again the vision of a single blue saber clashing with the one that had dispersed the others. It was hard to discern which had been that one, such was the speed of their movement, but still, there was only one victor._

The third week had been no better.

_There was a new scene. In this one, four lightsabers ignited, two blue, one green, one purple. Not many had a purple lightsaber. The crystal for one was rare. Master Windu? Moments later, there was a blazing red lightsaber. A Sith for sure! In a flash, three of the sabers were gone, leaving only the purple one -Windu?- to face the red. A brief duel ensued. It looked like the purple saber would win, when, suddenly, it was struck down by the blue saber from before. It was clear now that this blue saber represented some rogue Jedi, a very powerful one at that. It scared Ahsoka._

_The scene of one saber against many became clearer. Now there were vague shapes: humanoids, some with lightsabers... and many more with blasters. The result was no different than before. Those with blasters aided the lone blue saber in eradicating all the others. The many Jedi stood no chance._

_Again was the last two lightsabers. But this time, there was fire and heat all around. This duel was more clear than ever, the environment was all black as were the duelists. It was clear enough now that she could see. The rogue Jedi, whoever they were, lost. It was over._

The fourth week put things into even more perspective.

_The fight with the Sith now was a shadow scene, duelists and environment slowly coming together. Ahsoka told herself something was vaguely familiar about this place, but she couldn't recall what._

_The next scene was the one vs. many fight, but it was suddenly horrifyingly clear. Everything was still black with no color or sound, but she now knew where this was and could begin see recognizable shapes. The Jedi temple. It was all too clear now what was happening. A massacre. A cloaked and hooded figure with the blue lightsaber led an army of shadowy Clone troopers into the temple, and killed every Jedi. None were spared. Ahsoka was somehow glad that the vision was not clearer._

_The Battle of Two -as Ahsoka had started calling it- was clear enough now to discern the planet. Mustafar. The rogue Jedi dueled furiously with what seemed to be the last one left. Nothing had color, except the sabers and the lava. For some reason, these two duelists were blurrier than the fighters in the Jedi temple, and she couldn't tell who either was. Their battle took them high and low, both fighting with a mixture of sabers and martial arts, and, again, the rogue Jedi lost._

All of this had her uneasy. Were these visions? Would they really come to pass? Were the Jedi doomed? Ahsoka resolved to see these visions through and try to prevent them. Hypocrites that they were sometimes, the Jedi did not deserve this. The fifth week did nothing to make her feel better.

_The Sith fight was as clear as the temple scene now, but she could not identify the Sith, who was shrouded by the Dark side. She had been right though. Mace Windu led the fight against the Sith with Masters Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin. It scared Ahsoka now more than ever how powerful this Sith was to almost casually dispose of _three_ Council members in less than twenty seconds. Soon, Master Windu had the Sith disarmed and prepared a finishing blow, only to be blind sighted by that damnable rogue, which resulted in the Sith blasting him out the large window beside them to his death._

_The temple scene had _sound_. And Ahsoka nearly lost it at the screams of terror and cries for mercy, none of which were answered. It was made all the worse by the level of detail now shown. The blood and gore in black and white were everywhere, and yet she couldn't get sick in this dream. The Rogue slaughtered everyone with the assistance of the Clones, eyes burning the hateful, fiery, yellow of a Sith from beneath the hood of his billowing cloak. No longer a Rogue. Definitely a Sith. Though, she would still call him the Rogue for posterity's sake._

_The Battle of Two was clear as day now in all its fiery glory, all but for the two fighters. The Survivor -the last Jedi she figured but hoped otherwise- was looking more familiar but was blotted out by the shroud of the Rogue. Eventually, the Survivor pulled off victory, seemingly cutting the Rogue in two and allowing him to fall to the edge of the lava. He shouted something indiscernible and walked away, the Jedi seemingly avenged._

That week had been the most suspenseful, waiting for her visions to evolve more detail, yet wishing they would just disappear altogether. Ahsoka never denied herself sleep, dare she miss something important otherwise, but she still woke up struggling not to scream or feeling sick, dry heaving uselessly. This was more important than her sanity she told herself. She could work to get rid of the dreams, when it all came to a head. And to a head it came on that fateful sixth week...

_The theme of this night seemed to be full color, again except for both Sith. The Force apparently wanted her still guessing._

_The Sith battle went the same as always, but Ahsoka now saw where they were, though she still couldn't remember when she had been there -or where _there_ was, exactly._

_The Jedi Massacre was, simply put, a nightmare of no equal. Masters, Knights, Padawans... Younglings. Oh dear _Force_, the _Younglings_! That had been the worst part, following the Rogue to the Council chamber and seeing the hopeful looks on the young ones' faces... only for them to all be cut down without pause or an ounce of mercy. And it was all in vomit and tear inducing full color. Yet _still_, frustratingly, Ahsoka could not identify the Rogue, even when a Master knocked his hood down._

_This time, however, Ahsoka saw the Massacre happen in even more detail with brief flashes of places across the galaxy. Ki Adi Mundi, Luminara Unduli, and Aayla Secura: gunned down instantly. Plo Koon and Adi Galia: both blown up in transport. An explosion and Obi-wan, falling from a great height... Throughout it all though, one order was given: an Order 66._

_The Survivor was finally revealed... Obi-wan Kenobi, the last of the Council, having apparently survived his troops' betrayal, took the fight to the Rogue on the plains of Mustafar in a spectacular and ferocious battle, that tore apart the Separatist base they fought upon and sunk it into the lava._

_But Ahsoka felt something was wrong, even as she rooted for the 'last Jedi'. He would win, she now knew, but throughout the fight he was clearly holding back in some capacity. Why? Who could he be fighting to hold back in the slightest? The Rogue had wiped out the entire Order!_

_When Obi-wan gained the high ground near the sea of lava, he said as much. Their words became clear at that point._

_"You underestimate my _power_," the Rogue said, eyes burning amber. His voice was terrifyingly familiar._

_"Don't try it," Obi-wan warned. Truly, the Negotiator was willing to give _anyone_ a chance at surrender it seemed._

_The Rogue ignored him and leaped, subsequently losing both legs and his left arm to Obi-wan's blade. The Rogue gave a shout of pain, as he rolled to the edge of the lava, only just stopping himself from sliding in with his remaining arm._

_For a moment both were silent, but for Obi-wan's harsh, deep breathing and the Rogue's groans and cries of agony, as the harsh environment did his open wounds no favors. Then Obi-wan screamed something, looking even with all his Jedi training to be on the verge of tears, that made Ahsoka's breath catch and her blood run dead cold. "YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!"_

_From then on, Ahsoka could see through the shadows to Anakin in every part of her visions. Yet still, the mysterious Sith lord, who Anakin helped, could not be seen. And his reasons for this travesty remained unknown._

That week, Ahsoka couldn't stop herself from bolting up screaming. She didn't want to believe the visions; she _refused_ to believe them. He had been her only light in that place; how could he do this? Even still, the dreams continued.

Ahsoka shivered. For all the horrors of her premonitions of the Jedi and her master's fate, the seventh week so far had somehow managed to be the hardest on her. She had remembered her time on Mortis... _all_ of it. Ahsoka had lived it out in fast forward, slowing down where her memory was blurry, where she had been tainted and completely controlled by the Dark side, till nothing was forgotten. What was most scary, though, was how much absolutely bone-rattling _pleasure_ she had been getting out of the experience -how completely and utterly drunk on power she had been in that moment, fighting so wildly and sloppily against her master.

Despite the horror of her earlier visions, the idea of losing herself so completely and actually _liking_ it -_loving it_\- was an _entirely_ different brand of terror that surpassed even those witnessed atrocities.

And just yesterday morning at a merciless 4 A.M., Ahsoka had woken up to her trashed apartment, immersed in and emitting the Dark side of the force. She had _immediately_ wrenched herself out of it, difficult though it was. The experience terrified her to no end. What if she became like she had on Mortis? Ahsoka made a silent _vow_ -upon pain of literal suicide- then and there to herself to _never_ become that twisted person again under _any_ circumstances. It was just _that_ horrible of a concept to her.

Still though, her teachings were helping little. She needed to look into this further, and only the Jedi temple might have the answers she sought. Even as she meditated on a roof across from the building, she felt that part of her prodding at her being, the Dark side nudging at her to let go of her control. But she stalwartly smashed it down and corked it.

Ahsoka almost felt the Force groan in disappointment, and perhaps it had. The Force was alive in a way, after all -though she was unsure of to what extent exactly, but this was just _scaring_ her. Ahsoka could feel it creeping into her bones and the midichlorians in her blood. Her body, the Force itself, or maybe even both had gotten a taste of what the other offered and wanted it _badly_, no matter how much Ahsoka, herself, felt to the contrary. It was a constant struggle.

So here Ahsoka found herself, hoping that being near somewhere familiar would help her. It had not. It had _instead_ caused her to reminisce on basically everything she came here to forget! She sighed. Why the _kriff_ was her Dark side so _kriffing_ strong? She shook her head. Was it even strong in comparison to other Force sensitives'. Was she just weaker than others? For surely, it didn't require other Jedi -_force sensitives_, she corrected herself- this much conscious effort to suppress it.

"Hrm, troubled are you, young one?" came a scraggly, deep voice from behind her.

Ahsoka couldn't stop herself from jumping in surprise, even though she already knew who it was subconsciously. She must really be on edge... "M-master Yoda," she said, turning to him. Great... a stutter. That confirmed his question for her, and meant those nightmares were getting to her more than she thought. Never mind that fact that he'd even caught her here in the first place and the things that could be inferred about her mindset and intentions from that occurrence alone.

The diminutive, green alien gave her a knowing look. "Wish to tell, do you?" He tapped his cane on the roof with a smile, and turned to the stairs. "Come."

Ahsoka blinked but stood up anyway. "Uh~, how'd you find me?" Stupid question she told herself. Of course, she knew the answer to that. The Force. Yoda's quiet, hearty chuckle told her he knew she knew that as well. "But... I'm... not a Jedi... anymore..."

"Can not help a troubled person can I? A poor Jedi, I would be then." Yoda replied simply. "A living and certainly troubled being you are, are not you? Your elder also I am. Think perhaps you may benefit from some knowledgeable company, I do." Ahsoka allowed herself a small smile and followed the Jedi Grandmaster.

* * *

Each meditation chamber in the temple was a small, circular room with pillows and chairs on the floor and unlit candles set in a corner to be used when one felt like it. The meditation chambers were all mostly set on the outer edges of the temple; thus, most of the rooms had windows with blinds. This room, in fact, did _not_ have windows for privacy's sake.

Yoda seemed to sense Ahsoka's unease with traversing the temple or running into anyone she knew, which was entirely understandable considering the circumstances that she left under, and he'd led her to the room they now entered on the shortest path there swiftly and without event.

As they entered the dim, circular chamber, Yoda took a place on one of the five pillows in the room and gestured for Ahsoka to do the same. Ahsoka sighed heavily and did so, abandoning all pretenses and slumping as she took a cross-legged position. "Now," he began. "Sense I do, young one, distressing you greatly, something is."

Ahsoka sighed again. The energy seemed to drain from her body then. "I-I'm so tired," she said quietly. The Togruta lifted her head to Yoda, showing off the deep bags under her eyes that she tried to hide. "And don't get me wrong, it's nothing the Jedi or even myself have done." She paused, sighing deeply once more; she seemed to be doing it a lot.

"Go on," Yoda encouraged gently, sensing this was something she needed to get off her chest desperately.

"I've... I've been having dreams, nightmares really, of terrible, awful things, and I've been thinking for a while that they may be more than just dreams. Right now though, I don't think I can talk about them. I'm not even sure I _should_ talk about them. What if doing that makes them happen," she said.

"'We often meet our fate on the road we take to avoid it' the saying you speak of, I believe is," Yoda rumbled, nodding slowly. "The will of the Force it is that you have these premonitions."

"Premonitions?" Ahsoka prodded, slumping slightly. "Are they really that? I had hoped not."

"Visions of the future, but never certain is the future," Yoda stated. "Works in ways we can never fully comprehend, the will of the Force does." Ahsoka shivered. "More there is, I sense."

Ahsoka nodded and gulped a little. What would the Jedi Grandmaster do if she told him? She decided, that if anyone could offer her advice here it would be him. The old, green, alien would surely be the most understanding. "I don't know... how much Obi-wan and M-master (The stutter was not lost on Yoda, who raised a fuzzy white brow) told you about Mortis, if anything, but..." The elder Jedi's eyes widened a bit, but he did not say anything. "I remembered everything... I remember what I did under the Son's influence, and now that I have..."

Yoda was quiet for a moment, then spoke. "Told me of your temporary affliction in private, Skywalker and Kenobi did. Shared the more sensitive details with me only, they did. If guilty you are, then not should you be. Your fault it was not. But perhaps... Yes, great fear I sense in you. Fear of yourself, of what be you could? Perhaps fear for others and what do you might? Temporary it was, not under your control. No fear you should have..." He trailed off at this with a curious look in his eyes.

Ahsoka only seemed to curl in on herself at this. "I-It wasn't temporary." She loosened her hold on the Dark side, allowing it to show through slowly but leashed tightly, drawn in as close as she could manage so as not to bring the entire temple down upon her. Ahsoka shivered a bit, as she felt her skin pale, veins becoming black and more pronounced; a brief stinging in her eyes let her know that they had most likely taken on the burning amber of a Sith.

Yoda looked _very_ surprised, which was certainly not often the case, but to his eternal credit only slightly weary of her -the only sign an upward perking of the ears- and seemingly more inquisitive than anything else. "Hrm, returned then it has? The Dark side. Latched onto you strongly it has. In no small part no doubt it is, due to the Son's raw Dark side affiliation. Attracted to your potential no doubt."

Ahsoka hadn't bothered to reel in the Dark side completely yet. Letting it trickle out, even if just barely, felt worlds better than containing it completely. "My... potential? What could the Dark side of the Force want out of me? How could I be any more appealing than anyone else as to have it seek me out so directly? This isn't like any case of Dark side corruption I've ever heard of."

Yoda nodded. "Correct you are. Drawn to us all, the Force is, as we are to it. Connects us. Binds us together." He was silent, seemingly deciding on what to say, or rather, _if_ to say something. "Worried your former Master was, upon returning from Mortis, concerned about lasting effects to you. Lied I did, to the results of a secret blood test. Not see coming did I this, but changes there were."

"Like what?" the Togruta ventured.

"Higher your midichlorian count had risen. Your connection to the force as well as a result. Checked thrice the results also did I. Told no one. Chaos there would have been..." Ahsoka waited for him to finish. "10,000 the standard is for an average Jedi. In a cell of my blood, 17,000 there are. Higher still are Skywalker's 27,000... Previously, no higher count there has been. Proof this has been for him to be the Chosen One." Ahsoka gulped. Surely not! "In your new sample, 41,000... there were," Yoda finished seriously.

Ahsoka's breath caught and her jaw dropped. That number; it was staggering! It was hard to even comprehend that level of Force sensetivity! That would make her potentially more powerful than the Chosen One. "T-That's i-im-"

"Impossible?" Yoda finished for her rather cheekily. "Not so. Connected directly to the Force through the Son you were, even if for a short time it was. Then resurrected you were, with the life Force of a living, physical manifestation of the Light side. Bound to have changed you it was. A higher affinity for the Dark side you have still gained though as a result."

Ahsoka clenched her fists, the edges of her glowing, amber eyes glimmering with unshod tears.. "I don't want to change. I don't _want_ the Dark side. I don't want to kill anyone! I don't want to become a monster!" The Dark side latched onto her powerful distress and flared dangerously.

"_Calm_ yourself you must. _Control_ your emotions you _must_, not let them control you," Yoda said firmly, putting one of his three-clawed hands onto Ahsoka's shoulder and sending calming waves of the Force into her, helping her press the Dark side down to a stable level, yet surprisingly not helping her lock it away, something Ahsoka noticed.

She blinked her amber eyes and sniffled a bit but took a steadying breath and nodded to the Jedi grandmaster. "Thank you." Yoda only nodded and waddled back to sit once more on his still warm pillow. Ahsoka furrowed her brow. "What do you mean 'control'? A Jedi, err- Force sensitive, should suppress their emotions. Why would I ever want to control them? Emotion leads to the Dark side, and my Dark side is already powerful enough as it is."

A small rumble of thought passed through Yoda's throat. "_Very_ delicate your situation is. Ignore your potential, both sides of the Force can not. Drawn to you they are, not the other way around. Deny them, you should _not_ attempt."

Ahsoka looked more than a little appalled. "What are you saying, to give in to the Dark side? How could _you_ of all people even _suggest_ that?"

"No and yes," Yoda answered cryptically.

Ahsoka raised a brow. "How so?" The Jedi Grandmaster was as wise as they come. Even the most asinine advice from him was worth a good deal if interpreted correctly.

"Give in? No. Wield? Yes," Yoda replied. He raised a hand to stall her argument. "Doing nothing good for you this resistance is. Control the Dark side, you must. Want you it does, and denied it shall not be at this rate. Let it control you _you_ must not. Without acceptance, happen this will."

Ahsoka looked down-trodden. "Is there no other way? Do I really have to use it?"

Yoda sighed and ran a claw through his short, fuzzy hair. "Balance the key is. Use both sides together you must. Control the Dark with the Light. Several possible ways there are. Your own methods you must find, but in the end the same it will be. Balance within yourself you _must_ achieve, or fall and be consumed you _will_."

Ahsoka could only nod at that. She sucked in a breath and bottled-up the rest of the Dark side, orange skin flushing with regained color and eyes becoming blue again. Yoda smiled and stood, sensing that this conversation was over, at least, for now.

* * *

The small Jedi led Ahsoka back out of the room and the temple, once again doing so without complication.

"One more piece of advice for you I have," Yoda said, as they arrived outside. "Inherently evil the Dark side is _not_. Intention what truly matters is. All things one through the Force they are, even both sides of it. So fear not you should. Answers I hope find you will. The best of luck I wish you."

"Oh..." Ahsoka blinked. "Uh, Thank you, Master Yoda. This... This meant a good deal to me, for you to talk with me and to be so... accepting."

"Nothing of it should you think," Yoda replied with a dismissive wave. "Till again we meet."

Ahsoka smiled warmly, feeling her heart lift a little. "I might just look forward to that. I'll do my best." She gave waved goodbye and walked away down the temple steps for the first time in over a month and a half.

Now then... How was she going to learn to channel and control the Dark side on her own?

* * *

**AN: There we go. I hope Ahsoka or Yoda weren't too OC, if at all. Yoda has just always struck me as being the wisest, most understanding, and most open-minded of the Jedi, so if Ahsoka talked to anyone, it needed to be him.**

**R&amp;R! I read reviews and eat flames! :D**


	2. Toeing the Edge

**Disclaimer: Don't own Star Wars or its characters. All this belongs to Lucasarts, except my OCs, if any.**

**AN: I'm so unbelievably ecstatic to see how much response the first chapter got! I can't believe how popular this story is! No other story I've started has ever been so successful so fast, except for Naruto's Kamui! :D Anywho, you peeps don't care about the AN; you want a chapter! So here you are!**

Ch 2: Toeing the Edge

* * *

Chancellor Palpatine, secretly known as Sith Lord Darth Sidious, frowned, for he had received a vivid vision from the Dark side of the Force. In it, the former Padawan, Ahsoka Tano had been a startling sight.

In the vision, Tano and Skywalker dueled furiously inside the halls of the Jedi temple, tearing apart their environment, their reasons for being there seemingly having to be gleaned from their silent conversation. What caught Sidious's attention the most, was the fact that both's eyes burned the amber of the Dark side. Oh yes, it was an interesting vision indeed.

Darth Sidious decided he would have to keep close tabs on the young Togruta; she could potentially be a threat to his ambitions. If she proved to be such, he would eliminate her, but, for now, her own turn to the Dark side represented a chance to further his future apprentice's own turn. Even from here, he could feel the Dark side swelling around the former Jedi, intermixed with the Light.

The future was never certain, after all, but Sidious's own visions had not let him astray once. It was the will of Dark side for him to succeed.

The Jedi perhaps could not sense her slipping control, but Sidious was no Jedi. He was a master of the Dark side and all its denizens; all its wielders could be found easily. It was, in fact, most likely that his own presence on Coruscant was what prevented the Jedi from sensing her.

That might not stay true for much longer though. Her presence in the Force was up there with Skywalker's, but Sidious had no idea how the sudden change had come about. Skywalker had made brief mention to him before of a mission to somewhere called, Mortis. Ahsoka had returned with her Master and the Negotiator stronger, though she herself didn't seem to have noticed the change.

Yes, if she could be turned completely, the Togruta would make a fine inquisitor in his future Empire; no sense in wasting such potential. As one of his Hands, she would most certainly help secure his position of domination over the galaxy _and_ Skywalker's loyalty to him. The Dark Lord couldn't help but quietly cackle sinisterly.

After all... the Dark side _always_ finds a way... Or was that _Evil_? Hmm... Really, the two were almost interchangeable at times, but he must have been playing _far_ too much _Overlord_ in his spare time. Ah, to dream of ruling a grand, Dark Empire with an iron fist!

* * *

Ahsoka Tano made a quick stop at her apartment to procure her Jedi cloak, which she had kept from the Jedi temple, before making her way into the sprawling, hologram lit darkness of Coruscant's undercity. To be more specific, she was heading to the abandoned Works District, otherwise known simply as The Works.

If she was going to be practicing wielding the Dark side -if she absolutely had to learn to do it, she'd at least do it somewhere far from where any Force sensitive -Jedi especially- could reach her easily. Hopefully this way, she'd have time to sense their signatures coming if they did, and she wouldn't hurt anyone if she lost herself and went berserk. Well, no-one sentient anyway.

The Works was the name of a large industrial area of Coruscant. The area was located in the Dacho District, which was close to the Senate District and next to the Fobosi District. It was an immense manufacturing center for many companies, who had later abandoned the planet for cheap labor and off-world facilities. Prospective urban developers released stone mites, duracrete slugs, and conduit worms into The Works, in an attempt to clear the area out so it could be purchased and refurbished, but hadn't yet gotten much of anywhere on that front.

The Works was an area to be avoided by most of the population, due to its usual inhabitants of smugglers, squatters, death stick runners, malfunctioning droids, gangsters, undocumented refugees, and Cthons. The majority of The Works' structures were in a severe state of decay, and had been abandoned for centuries. Despite this, many of the facilities were self-powered and continued to produce toxic waste and eerie mechanical sounds across the low-lying factories even now, a long time after the departure of the owners.

It was rather ironic that Ahsoka should choose to practice here, as this was where Dooku and Darth Mual were primarily trained while on Coruscant.

* * *

The area was bathed in a dim, orange glow, hot steam hissing overhead from massive pipes and ventilation shafts, as the young female Togruta made her way deeper into the bowels of The Works. Ahsoka pulled her grey togrutian-styled cloak -designed with the togruta montral horns in mind- tighter around herself, as she reached an area rife with large power generators that glowed pale orange in the dimness.

The area between generators was 50 meters each, and Ahsoka set herself down in a meditative position in the center of an empty square area between four generators.

Glancing around and confirming that she was truly alone, Ahsoka let out a sigh and steeled her conviction. She loosed about 10% of her hold and was forced to bite her lip, as a shiver crawled through her body. Ahsoka felt that distinct sting and tingle, as her blue eyes flushed golden and orange skin paled, veins pronouncing themselves in black.

The Dark side flooded into the Togruta, attempting to flush out the Light and converting as many midichlorians to its side as it could, doing its best to prove to this potential wielder of its power its usefulness, its superiority... Ahsoka scrunched her white brow markings together in concentration, as she reeled the Dark side back in again.

Actually, she wondered what _her_ personal opinion of the Dark side was. What _was_ the Dark side truly in its entirety? How was she actually supposed to control it? What had Yoda said? Control the Dark with the Light. That made her wonder...

The Dark side was part of the Force, one side of the same credit so to speak, same as the Light. Sith tended to be more powerful than Jedi in general and usually had to be defeated by two or more Jedi, usually Masters. Though, it was often their recklessness, general bloodlust, and lack of control that got them killed. However, Jedi seemed to have a higher survival rate, since they seemed more willing to coexist peacefully in the galaxy and didn't try to rule over all, like the Sith.

The Dark side was about using your emotions to fuel your endeavors without letting those same emotions dictate your actions, something that the Sith actually did not do seemingly, letting their passions rule them generally. The Light was about serenity and achieving balance, something -Ahsoka realized with a bitter laugh- that would be honestly impossible without _both_ _sides_ of the Force used in equal parts, not that any Jedi would ever admit that.

Actually, wasn't the Force out of balance right _now_. It was -dare she say it- the Jedi Order's fault, wiping out the Sith and all the other Darksiders. It suddenly hit her, like running into a brick wall, how the Force had operated since the dawn of time. The Jedi had misinterpreted the prophesy of the Chosen One on a catastrophic scale. In their arrogance and blind unwillingness to coexist with what they perceived as evil and their immediate perception of the singular use of the Light as being balance, they had destroyed all the Darksiders and severely unbalanced the Force, and Anakin's actions -the slaughter of the Jedi- would unknowingly balance it once more. The destruction of the Nightsisters by the Separatists certainly hadn't helped anything either.

This realization was huge. If there weren't enough Darksiders by the time Anakin was forced to make a choice between the Jedi and the Sith, the Force would influence Anakin to bring the Force _balance_, no matter the cost.

So now Ahsoka had another quest to engage in. She needed to find a way to balance the Force enough to sate it from influencing the Jedi's destruction. The galaxy _actually_ _needed_ more Darksiders, and Ahsoka would have to help bring them together. But she wouldn't be able to help anyone if she couldn't achieve her own balance. She needed to master the Dark side. There were no two ways about it. So Ahsoka gulped and delved back into her experimentations with the Dark side, entering and exiting its influence.

Meditation would come before anything else. Releasing the floodgates on the Dark side by a fourth, Ahsoka gasped audibly at the rush before settling herself and stretching out her senses, allowing both the Light and Dark to assist her. Ahsoka slowly allowed her senses more access to the Dark side without shutting out the Light. Her hesitation often led her to clamp down hard on the Dark side's influence like a gag reflex, whenever it flared, unused to how powerful her emotions were while using it. She had to remember that the Dark side was not inherently evil; it was just acting as was its nature.

Ahsoka used the majority of this time simply repressing her Force signature and stretching out her senses, feeling out the other Force signatures across Coruscant. At one point, Ahsoka had thought she felt other Dark side presences scattered across the planet before they disappeared. But... that had to be wrong, right? There should have only been one other Darksider on Coruscant, the Sith Lord. Well actually, there _was_ her former friend, Barriss... That is, if for some reason she was still in prison and hadn't been executed, even after all this time.

Barriss... Assuming she was alive, Ahsoka might just have to do something about her. The Force would need as many Dark side wielders as it could get, regardless of whom... Then there was the matter of the other scattered Dark side-inclined Force signatures; she needed to seek them out at some point.

A solid five hours of little success in anything else significant later, Ahsoka finally realized she was hungry and headed back to her apartment for the day.

* * *

As her meditations progressed in the three months since, Ahsoka began to find herself more in tune with the nature of the Force than she ever had before. With her former Master's influence, her strong point had never been meditation. But now... she could begin to feel the nature of both sides. The Light flowed; soothing, constant, with hidden strength, filling her with the warmth of life across the planet and sometimes beyond. Of course, this was the space station of a planet, Coruscant, so there wasn't much life except the varied intelligent beings that lived on and within it. In contrast, the Dark side felt like a roaring fire; its power glaringly obvious, seductive, and potentially dangerous, focusing all its efforts solely on Ahsoka's individual ability and making her more than she was...

Ahsoka found that the Dark side seemed somehow 'possessive' of her as its newest wielder, but she refused to give it more clout than the Light, attempting to satisfy both halves of the Force and find a middle ground where they could coexist within her and with each other.

Eventually, Ahsoka found herself comfortable enough to make active usage of the Dark side in her Force abilities, testing it on the junk and crazed droids in The Works. When she would do so, the Dark side was the fuel for her power, and the Light was her leash. Ahsoka found herself wondering if this was not how the Force was meant to be wielded; all in equal measure. The Dark side was now like a 'mode'. Without too much effort, Ahsoka could flip it 'on' and 'off' at will. Ahsoka hoped to eventually be able to allow it to flow naturally, but as it was, her Force signature would stick out like a sore thumb on Coruscant.

She knew she should have already been found, and Ahsoka realized that the Sith Lord's presence on Coruscant must be drowning hers out sufficiently. She had a feeling it wouldn't be too long before she encountered him in person.

* * *

**4 Months Since Leaving the Jedi:**

It was the dawn of the fourth month, and right now, Ahsoka was tentively trying to learn how to emit the Dark side's Force lightning without using anger as the fuel. It was difficult, since you had to will the lightning at your target; you had to have the _intent_ to strike your target with lightning and electrocute it. It was really a similar principal to the Force choke only less hateful and more outright aggressive, not that she really planned to use that other particular ability. Therefore, it was hard to have a proper intent other than 'hurt them' without feeling hatred.

Seriously. Consciously doing it, it was hard to possibly use a different emotion. And because it was a Dark side technique, she _needed_ an emotion to feed into it. She knew these things through lots of experimentation, and she still had yet to successfully emit lightning without being unnecessarily angry and flushed with bloodlust afterwards, seeing as how the Dark side returned inserted emotions back to the user twofold to create a power loop. It _was_ truly fascinating how that worked, but it was a hindrance all the same.

She currently had pinned with the Force, against a steel wall in the bowels of The Works, a rusty, grey-colored, feral ASP worker droid, that had conveniently attacked her. The ASP snarled and chirped mad ravings at her, which she ignored with a roll of her eyes.

Ahsoka held out her free, gloved right hand towards the struggling droid and sifted through her emotions; happiness, joy, love, benevolence, anger, sadness, hatred, greed, jealousy, fear, aggression, megalomania, and passion. There were more, but she aimed for the obvious. Ahsoka acknowledged each of her emotions in courteous passing -they each existed in some small way and would be accepted as part of her, but she needed a single one to focus the Dark side through without losing herself...

Happiness, joy, and benevolence weren't consistent enough to use as fuel. Sadness, hatred, greed, and jealousy were not an option; far too negative. Megalomania was just... _Nope_. Nope _nope_ **nope**. Anger, and fear were fickle emotions, but they could be useful in a pinch at the risk of them evolving into more volatile emotions. Passion; it was something that was based around a person's beliefs and what they enjoyed doing. Passion could work maybe... That is, if she could discover what the correct aspect of it to use was. And _that_ was an entirely different barrel of monocks.

Ahsoka pinched the bridge of her nose; this was frustrating just to think about. Moments later, it suddenly clicked for her. Maybe righteous anger would work, the kind of quiet, passionate anger one would associate with punishing the unjust. Yes... She could work with that.

Ahsoka's hand jotted out, and she focused on the feral ASP droid. With how vicious it was, it had most likely killed people and would certainly keep doing so if it continued to function, so she would 'disable' the threat it represented. And it worked like a charm. She cycled the energy of her righteous anger into the Force, and visible flecks of static began to pass between her fingers. Bolts of brilliant, crackling, blue Force energy suddenly leapt out and struck the ASP-series droid, frying its circuits in an instant. Ahsoka poured more energy into the attack, increasing the heat and intensity, and soon the droid was reduced to a pile of half-smoking scrap, half-melted slag-heap.

The azure lightning halted, as Ahsoka drew back from the wellspring of power she had just accessed. She scrunched her shoulders together with a shiver; the usage of the Dark side was always an intoxicating experience. Ahsoka shook her slightly-smoking glove a bit to cool it from the heat that had been exuded.

Ahsoka left the melted slag to go meditate some more. She was starting to get the hang of it, but she still couldn't seem to coerce both sides of the Force to harmonize. The Light side seemed to arrogantly keep hold of its values like tree sap and refused to bend, and the Dark side was 'acting' extremely possessive and aggressive towards the Light whenever they met.

* * *

Ahsoka sighed and sat down. Poodoo kriff it! The Force seemed to actually be 'behaving'... childishly! It was like she was trying to get two of the most selfish and intolerably incompatible children of all time to play nice, almost like playing the part of the Father for the Son and Daughter on Mortis! In fact... it was pretty much _exactly_ like that -times twenty! Seriously! These two children did _not_ like to share; they were both ridiculously greedy and wanted everything they could get their hands on. If one had more, the other would try and steal from them or even outright destroy what they had; it was as if in _spite_!

Was it really any wonder Jedi and Sith didn't get along? The Force itself was feuding through them. It was all very annoying, and Ahsoka was becoming frustrated with the two sides. _'Ugh, you two know what? I'm just going to call them out on it; you have to tell children these things directly. _Yeah_ that's right! I'm actually talking to you, the Force -both sides, in my head or whatever! You want me to help you?! You want me all to yourselves? Guess what? I do want to help you -both of you, but I'm not something to be owned! I don't belong solely to either of you, and that is not to say I have any real preference. I won't abandon the usage of either of you; you both have good and bad aspects. I want to be able to work with both of you at the same time, but this little pissing contest of yours? It needs to stop. Neither of you will ever have it all with you both sabotaging the other. You need to just agree to disagree. You're just destroying yourselves along with _everyone_ and _everything_ involved with you.'_

There was a sort of rumble in the Force from both sides, indignant from the rigid Light side and grudging from the more flexible Dark side. _That_ right there caught Ahsoka _completely_ off guard. Ranting at the Force had mostly just been a way to vent her frustrations; she hadn't _actually_ expected to get a response -never mind a _positive_ one! This was actually happening! It was completely and utterly ridiculous, she knew, but somehow Ahsoka felt it was necessary to continue.

_'I know you two don't get along too well, but isn't that kinda' natural, like siblings? Sometimes, there need to be compromises to achieve satisfaction on _both_ ends,'_ Ahsoka continued. _'You both need to just accept that the other obviously exists and always will, and just get over yourselves! I will never be able to wield you both if you don't!'_

Ahsoka didn't receive any sort of answer to that, not that she expected one from the Force. For the Force did not simply 'speak' to Force sensitives. Instead, Ahsoka felt a great calm settle all about her in the Force. Both sides were being quiet to the universe, even the rowdy Dark side was contemplative.

For some reason, Ahsoka didn't find any of this all that weird. The fact that she could feel the Force like it was alive to this degree should have alarmed her, but it did not do so. Right now, she deigned to chalk it all up to her apparently ludicrous Force sensitivity.

Soon. Slowly. Ever so slowly, Ahsoka felt a nudge within her, as both sides of the Force came to her together. Tentively, they began to flow around her core, through her being, pulsing cautiously at each other. Ahsoka reached out to both and began guiding them -with a surprisingly low amount of resistance- to flow side by side, inch for inch within her body.

After three hours of tedious and patient circulating that the teenage girl endured, Ahsoka felt the two sides begin to thin the distance within her, brushing up against each other and jerking back in response as if struck, as they tested the waters for what they and their potential duel wielder were going to attempt. One had to take such delicate things slowly.

Two more long hours later and the two sides of the Force were compacted tightly together, whirling and pooling in and around Ahsoka's center, but remaining separate all the same. Ahsoka was on the precipice of something amazing; she could practically _feel_ it, though both in and not in the sense of the Force.

There was a moment of quiet ease in the Force before Ahsoka felt an overwhelming _explosion_ of awareness and unadulterated _power_ come flooding into and around her entire being, like a great empty basin being filled to the brim in instant and overflowing just as quickly. The Force -both sides- for a single second truly _harmonized_. And it was utterly _glorious_ in its scope.

Every part of the galaxy was within her divination. Every sentient being or otherwise, every beast, every planet, and every ship in the bowels of space. For a single _second_, Ahsoka experienced what it meant to achieve full balance with the Force in its complete _entirety_. Then it was gone, and the incomprehensibly _immense_ strain caused the former Padawan to black out straight away.

* * *

Every Force sensitive in the galaxy felt the brief harmonization, and through the Force they all were privy to know that it was just that. And that shocked them all to the core. For someone in the galaxy, no matter who and for how long, had achieved Force harmonization; it was _possible_.

On a plush, comfy cushion in a meditation room of the Jedi Temple, a certain Jedi Grandmaster's wrinkled, green lips tilted upward just the slightest, as an emergency meeting of the Jedi Council was called.

* * *

In the Chancellor's office, Darth Sidious pursed his lips, pale hands steepled over his desk, before he decided to send out a private message. There was no delay in the response, as a hologram flickered into existence moments later.

"Count Dooku, it seems we have a powerful prospective Acolyte on Coruscant; a former Jedi with a Dark side affinity so strong, that it seems she must constantly work to consciously suppress it. Your task will be to force her to break from the pitiful inhabitations that have been drilled into her by her former Jedi peers."

_"Hmm... Skywalker's former apprentice?"_

"Indeed, Count."

_"It will be done, my Master,"_ Dooku said with a bow.

"See that it is. Failure is not an option. She _must_ be turned," Sidious said gravely. "The price for failure in this task _will_ be most _severe_... But do not fret, my Apprentice; Tano stands on the edge of a chasm. The Jedi's betrayal has made her confused and bitter. Use her emotions to your advantage; she is like Skywalker in that respect, and she will fall."

* * *

Ahsoka tossed her Togrutian cloak carelessly to the floor and collapsed face-first into the plushy depths of her bed's pillow. She couldn't help the relieved sigh that accompanied the action of applying the cool material to her lekku.

She had awoken on the metal ground earlier to a roaring rancor carving a headache into her existence; her head feeling like someone had split it open with a vibroblade and left it that way -with the vibroblade still inside, before staggering her way back to her apartment with all the godspeed of a drunk. NOT. FUN. _'Ugh.'_ She had not been ready to handle that.

_'Understatement of the decade!'_ Of course it wouldn't be so easy! She hadn't even been a Jedi Knight, when she'd left the order, and meditation and the absorption of information had never been her strong point in the first place!

Ahsoka groaned and shut her eyes. She figured it would be a while before a headache of this magnitude died down; she'd meditate while that happened. Actually, maybe she could speed up the process; healing was a Force skill. That epiphany had, Ahsoka touched upon the Light side of the Force and guided it to the strained muscle that was her brain.

It took the teenage Togruta a long, painful, and sleepless few hours, but once more her powerful Force affinity served her well. Before falling into the sweet caress of slumber, she had managed to get a trickling, cool sensation to travel up her spine and swirl about the insides of her cranium and montrals. Ahsoka fell asleep with a smile. If only she knew what destiny the Force had intended for her.

* * *

**AN: I know what you're thinking! THE UPDATE IS FINALLY HERE!**

**I think the biggest thing that stumped me for this chapter was whether or not to have her meet Dooku in it, since that would certainly be happening at some point. I eventually went with that happening sometime within next chapter. I've got plans for the Sith. Like I said in the description; the Force isn't all black and white. The same shall apply to their wielders.**

**I honestly can't wait to get to later parts of the story. I'm going to completely screw with the Revenge of the Sith plot. lol**

**Anywho, Good or bad? Tell me what needs fixing or not. I'll listen; this is my first Star Wars fic, after all, and I want to know I'm doing it right. R&amp;R! :D**


	3. The Consequences of Being a Darksider

**Disclaimer: Don't own Star Wars or its characters. All this belongs to Lucasarts, except my OCs, if any.**

**AN: There was a lot more happening this chapter than I originally planned on, but, hey... On Fanfiction, more is better. There was a bunch of stuff to get out of the way before Ahsoka could have much interaction with Dooku in the story.**

**Still though, all I've been working on when I have the chance over the past few days is this, and it's still taken me what feels like forever. I hope the pacing is fine and scenes don't feel too rushed.**

Ch 3: The Consequences of Being a Darksider

* * *

The entirety of the Jedi Council was convened, either in person or by hologram. All present wore undeniably -though they hid it well- stunned and serious expressions. Many didn't know what to think; someone out there had done something thought to have been lost as an ability for Force users for centuries. Someone had briefly achieved Balance.

The iconicly bald Mace Windu eventually deigned to 'break the ice' -as it were. "We all know why this session was called, but I will clarify for the sake of our states of mind. _Yes_, someone has done what we have thought impossible for a long time; they have achieved personal Balance in the Force." There were a few sharp intakes of breath; this was unprecedented.

The masked Plo Koon gave a throaty rumble of thought. "In order to do that, however, one would have to understand to some degree and manipulate _both_ sides of the Force -Light and Dark."

Obi-Wan Kenobi stroked his gloriously impeccable and magnificently immaculate beard -as he so often did- and nodded in agreement. "This, of course, begs the question: who could have done it?"

The chamber was quiet for a moment, until the Togruta council member, Shaak-Ti, spoke up. "Certainly not a Jedi. Surely at some point, we would have sensed them tampering with the devil forces of the Dark side in our own temple." There were a few nods of agreement.

"A Sith then?" Kit Fisto suggested with a contemplative frown marring his usually cheerfully smiling, green-skinned face.

Mace Windu furrowed his brow. "I sense that is unlikely. Most likely, this is a former Jedi... Regardless, we must seek this being out, before sinister forces can get ahold of them."

"In these dark times, clouds our vision the Dark side does," Yoda spoke up gravely. "Sense Offee's betrayal, we did not, when fallen from the Light within our own home, she had. Unable to sense the truth in young Tano's words were we also, even when directly before us she was, and cost us the trust of a promising Jedi, it did. As Jedi, understand the true nature of the Dark side we do not. So see past its illusions, how are we expected to?" The other Masters were silent at that; some displayed signs of guilt on their faces at the reminder of one of their greatest and most recent failures.

Yoda suddenly stood and slammed his gimer stick on the tile of the chamber with a loud crack. They looked on with varying shades of shock or resignation, as he gave them a hard look. "Hypocrites we so often are. Of the unknown, fear it is... even when preach to know no fear we do." At their stunned looks, he continued without interruption. "Ignorance and arrogance also it is. Know not our enemy do we, but know us through and through our enemy seemingly does. Exist for a reason do both sides. If corrupted by the Dark side one can be, then corruption by the Light also possible is?" He sighed and leaned on his walking stick. "If anything there is I fear, fear this I do most of all."

With that, Yoda hobbled out of the chamber, his wise words of the day said, thinking to himself that he really should reward himself with a cookie or something. The diminutive, green alien chuckled, once out of sight.

* * *

The Force pulsed welcomingly, upon Ahsoka's awakening the next day. The Togruta gave an eye twitch and an exasperated sigh at the sight of her -once again- messy bedroom. The two sides of the Force had been messing around in the night, apparently, with her lack of consciousness to heel them.

With a roll of her eyes, Ahsoka got to her feet and arched her back. There was a dull, insistent thumping in the back of her mind like a merry like gremlin on crack, armed with a jackhammer, but it seemed like the pain and exhaustion of her mental overload were mostly gone. She didn't bother doing much more than reeling in about half of the Dark side's power and treating the cleaning of her apartment as an experimental chore for her combined Light and Dark Force manipulation.

A quick meal of microwaved nerf steak and some boiled gartro eggs, and Ahsoka was off towards the Works, garbed in her grey Togruta Jedi cloak. Today, she decided she'd be modifying her training regimen. Mastering the Force was all well and good, but her body needed to actually be able to physically _handle_ the more intense exertions. The punishment for a lacking in that department had been made all too clear yesterday. The Force exacted a toll on the unprepared apparently.

There was only so far one could enhance their body with the Force without tearing themselves apart, after all. Ahsoka needed a larger base strength to work with. The female Togruta decided that her schedule would be altered to incorporate an intense morning routine and a slightly lighter cooldown at the end of the day.

* * *

She started with sets of one hundred sit-ups, squats, and push-ups, deciding she would add onto them as the exercise dulled. Then, she went through the motions for her Form III, IV, and V lightsaber forms with her green and yellow lightsaber and shoto, which she kept safely hidden in a medium-sized hip pouch.

After leaving the Jedi Order, Ahsoka had taken the time to track down the spot Barriss had gotten her captured and retrieve her dropped weapons. It had been _more_ than worth it in Ahsoka's mind; it would have been a pain tracking down new lightsaber crystals on the frozen wasteland that was planet Ilum. Cold planets could just go suck rancor droppings.

After all that, Ahsoka began a two hour jog mixed with parkour on and around the abandoned buildings of the Works. In reality, the jog was a paltry thing to Ahsoka, having been one of the more active battlefield commanders in the ongoing Clone Wars, and the only reason it wasn't longer was so as not to waste valuable training time. The rest of the time between then and her cooldown exercises was filled with meditation and experimentations in Force manipulation for both sides, alternating as needed.

The next week passed quickly by that way, and by the end of it Ahsoka had achieved some satisfactory proficiency in Force lightning. What she generated was still quite volatile and wild though. But the teenage Togruta felt like she was starting to hit a wall as far as where she could go alone. It may be time to ask Yoda for help again soon.

* * *

At the end of the week, Ahsoka doubled her morning physical exercises, managing to leave herself a gasping, exhausted wreak on the ground -to her satisfaction. She'd undoubtedly be sore all day. A half hour of self Force healing later, and Ahsoka felt okay enough to stand again and potentially fight if need be.

Pulling back from the Dark side, Ahsoka dug her holocommunicator out of her pouch, pulling up Yoda's contact information. It was handy to have the Jedi Grandmaster on speed dial.

Moments later, a hologram of the diminutive, green Jedi sitting on a cushion appeared. "Hrrm? Been a while, it has. Good to see you still well, it is. No time for an old one such as me in your busy days, you have?" Yoda's eyes held a teasing twinkle.

Ahsoka gave a bashful grin at that. "It's also good to see you as well, Master Yoda. I will admit that my schedule has been full between fat burning, hours of meditation, and contemplating the universe." She gave a quiet giggle, but her face became steely a second later. "In that time, I believe I've gained a much greater understanding of the Force as a whole than I'd ever even contemplated. I'm actually a bit ashamed of myself for not investing time into quality meditation sooner."

Yoda chuckled. "No problem is it; offended I was not. Much progress you have made in controlling your Dark side, but... Sense your frustration, I can. Enlighten me to your troubles, will you?"

"Straight to the point as usual, Master Yoda," Ahsoka said with a nod. "Lately, it seems that I've reached a point of involuntary stagnation in improvements to my Light side manipulation. One can only go so far with this sort of thing without proper instruction."

Yoda's hologram nodded. "True your words are; assistance in that regard, you need? Ask within reason, and help you, I will."

"Yes," Ahsoka replied. "With your permission, I'd like to consult the Great Holocron and the Jedi Temple's library archives. I've been getting the feeling that further mastery of the Light will be essential in the near future. And perhaps if I'm lucky, I may find some Dark side philosophy or techniques. I hear many Jedi record their ventures into the depths of the Force."

"Of course, young Tano," Yoda rumbled. "Important it is that you receive such knowledge, lest you imbalance yourself through misguided assumptions... Hrm... Meet you I shall at noon at the west side of the Temple. Lead you to the Archives from there, I shall."

* * *

Concealed with the Force a ways away within the shadows of the Works, Count Dooku smiled. This was a situation that had the potential to go extremely wrong for the young Darksider in training and turn steeply within the Sith's favor; his consultations with his Dark side senses told him it was so.

It was interesting, he noted, how the Jedi Grandmaster seemed so eager to help the young Togruta, who was struggling with her powerful Dark side affinity -one that continued to grow. Perhaps there was some ulterior motive there; Yoda always was rather annoyingly cryptic, concerning the end-goals of his actions.

* * *

It was only an hour till noon, so Ahsoka made a stop at her apartment to freshen up before quickly traveling to the Jedi Temple. Waiting for her was Yoda, both hands set on top of his gimer stick. One slow, tense walk through the emptier sections of the Temple -with Yoda using the Light side of the Force to assist Ahsoka in shielding her Force signature, which would have alarmed any passing Jedi, and they had arrived safely at the Archives.

Yoda turned to go -much to Ahsoka's alarm, but he waved off her worries. "Trust in the Force, you should. Fine you will be; lunchtime it is. Mostly deserted, the Archives should be."

Ahsoka reluctantly accepted that, but she would still be having a hard time keeping her Force signature hidden from the entire Temple. The thick double doors of the Archives closed behind the retreating Yoda with a quiet _thump_ that boomed ominously in Ahsoka's lekku within the deserted section of the Temple. Sighing, making sure her cloak left her almost completely unidentifiable, and rolling her shoulders, the former Jedi got to work.

The first stop she made was to copy data from the Stacks -datapad books basically- shelves in the First Hall of the Archives onto her own datapad. The First Hall contained records on great Force philosophy and techniques. However, the most valuable data that could be gathered here came from the journals of over a billion Jedi, some of which contained recorded alterations, improvements, or even out-right entirely new Force abilities discovered by said Jedi.

One journal that caught her attention the most was of Jedi Master Quinlan Vos, who had temporarily been an undercover Dark Acolyte for Dooku before returning to the Order. His extensively recorded studies and theory on the Dark side were copied without hesitation. There were also explorations and notations on the Form VII, Vaapad, which incorporated equal measures of the Light and Dark side, and Ahsoka decided it would be interesting to learn if she ever had significant spare time. This was most likely some of the only data of its kind in a Jedi library, and Ahsoka intended to use it well.

What the young Togruta couldn't have known, however, was that this was one of the journals that was deemed dangerous, and was set to send out a silent signal to all Council members within the Jedi Temple if it the data was accessed. Ahsoka couldn't know this, and so she stored away her copied data in her pouch and moved on to her next and final objective.

* * *

The Great Holocron could best be described as a beach ball-sized soccer ball made out of large, golden-rimmed, translucent pentagons. The Great Holocron was the centerpiece of the Jedi Temple's library holdings. It contained vast amounts of information that was accessible to any Force sensitive being willing to open itself to the holocron, and Jedi trainees were encouraged to explore its contents. Despite its ease of access, consumption of its manifold mysteries was thought to be impossible -even Master Yoda was thought, by Archives Director Jocasta Nu, to still struggle with its depth.

While the Great Holocron was designed to only reveal information that its user was prepared to encounter, inexperienced Padawans accessed the Great Holocron under the watchful eye of the Archives Director who stood ready to step in if the young Jedi was drawn in too far.

Ahsoka stood before the Great Holocron's pedestal and stretched out with the Force. There was a strange sensation, and Ahsoka was stunned and surprised by the amount of information available to her. The Great Holocron was accessed telepathically, watching mental projections and listening to extensive and detailed recordings, and Ahsoka had a bit of trouble sifting through everything presented to her.

Inside, was a vast wealth of topics, including basic and advanced lightsaber construction methods, Galactic Republic history, philosophy, Sith history, lightsaber combat, and Jedi techniques. There were also included discussions on the Dark side of the Force and methods to resist its call. Those would certainly be useful.

Data from the Great Holocron could not be copied without a blank holocron of one's own, so Ahsoka soaked up as much info as she could. Some of the most interesting subjects she perused included a speech by Saesee Tiin to younglings on telepathy, Plo Koon's musings on a Light side form of Force lightning called Electric Judgement, Yoda on farsight in the Force, Mace Windu on Vaapad, Kit Fisto on waterproofing lightsabers, and, most surprisingly to her, _Dooku_ on advanced lightsaber combat, conquering arrogance, and his resignation from the Order.

She had had _no idea_ Dooku used to be a member of the Jedi Council, and the former Jedi had only grown more powerful through the use of the Dark side. No _wonder_ the Jedi had never managed to catch him, let alone _find_ him. She had heard about her former Master's encounters with him, and it honestly sounded like the Count played with them the entirety of each encounter. Based on what she knew of him, Dooku -with his ever calm and complacent demeanor- almost sounded like the endgame of what she wished to achieve, a Force sensitive who wielded the Force with the strength and dedication of a hurricane while remaining an embodiment of the eye of the storm.

* * *

It was during these musings that the Force flared in a harried warning, and Ahsoka jerked her consciousness from the depths of the Great Holocron. The blood seemed to drain from her orange face, as Ahsoka turned and set her alarmed, blue eyes on the forms of Masters Mace Windu, Kit Fisto, Plo Koon (she winced), Shaak-Ti, Agen Kolar, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Thank the _Force_, Yoda wasn't here; she imagined that he'd made himself scarce on purpose to avoid being dragged along by whatever the other Jedi's response was to.

There was silence in the Archives for several tense moments thereafter. While on the outside, Ahsoka appeared at least moderately calm in the face of such potential adversity, on the inside she was very close to having an out-right panic attack, and she was almost positive most of the Jedi before her could sense that.

Her cloak was also useless in this situation; she figured they would have attacked her already if they didn't sense who she was. As it were, they apparently didn't even see her as enough of a threat to draw their lightsaber hilts. This was bad -very _very_ bad.

Mace Windu's tone was hard and stern -yet obviously mocking. "_Ahsoka Tano_... Perhaps, you can _enlighten_ us as to the reason why a _former_ Jedi like yourself is pursuing a _Jedi_ only library?" Obi-Wan gave the Jedi second in command a disapproving frown at his obviously confrontational tone.

Ahsoka visibly bristled, her Togruta predator aggression acting up. _'Kriffing damn you, baldy. How the sarlac you can sound so freaking smarmy and still remain a respected authority figure is truly beyond me.'_ "Do you honestly even _care_? Would you even believe me if I told you? Seems to _me_ these days the Jedi only _deign_ to believe to the truth when it suits them." Even Ahsoka was surprised by how much venom she had put into her words; several of the Masters shifted uncomfortably. _'Well that certainly didn't make anything better. Stupid Ahsoka. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid! I really need to get a handle on my emotions.'_

Taking a deep inhale and letting it go in a calming exhale, Ahsoka felt the tenseness in the Force relax. Her leash on the Dark side she kept desperately buried became that much easier to hold. The air between her and the Jedi still felt like a strained rubber band though.

"What did you take?" Mace Windu demanded with a glare.

Ahsoka snorted. "I believe that's my business and none of yours. I have my reasons, and said reasons have nothing negative to do with your precious _Order_. In fact, they are quite above it I believe. So, no worries, right?"

The Zabrak Council member, Agen Kolar, growled, taking offense to that, "I'm afraid we'll have to ask you to come with us now."

Ahsoka sighed and hung her head; the Force pulsed warningly outward from her core. "_Yes_, I suppose you would have to, wouldn't you?" The Jedi tensed at her low, emotionless tone.

"Ahsoka, don't..." Obi-Wan began, hand twitching towards his 'saber.

_'Six members of the Jedi Council; that's more than half while there's an empty seat. I won't let myself be stopped here, so this is most definitely going to come to blows,'_ Ahsoka noted mentally. _'Obi-Wan and Master Plo are neutral towards me I think, so I'll count them out as deadly threats for now. Not sure what to think about Kit Fisto, but I'll bet his aquatic body can't handle Force lightning at all. Shaak-Ti will probably hold back against her own race until I prove myself a definite threat. Mace Windu and Agen Kolar are going to be the real problems, but I'll bet I can use the others as shields to deter their aggressive styles. My body is still exhausted from training; I'm not ready for this kind of fight at all! If I want to have even a prayer of making it out of this alive, I'm going to have to quickly shock and overwhelm them with Dark side techniques.'_

Ahsoka's eyes suddenly flashed a glowing amber within the depths of her hood, and she let go of her leash and delved near fully into the Dark side, letting out a wave of her oppressive presence that crashed down on the shoulders of the Jedi Temple's occupants like 100 lb. weights.

Younglings and some Padawans in the building stumbled or even choked on the air itself, while Knights couldn't help but jerk their attention in the direction of the library, and every Master was forced to take stunned pause. High above the Temple in his copper-colored, knife-like Solar Sailor, Dooku smiled. This was a good day to be him.

"Sorry, _Masters_, but I'm afraid I'm rather disinclined to acquiesce to your request." Drawing on her indignant fury at their betrayal months prior and pumping enough of the Force into her limbs to make them ache, Ahsoka covered the distance between herself and the Jedi in a split second, seeming to materialize in the center of the group.

Ahsoka drew a massive amount of energy from the Force into her body and compressed it tightly. Only Master's Windu, Kolar, and Plo managed to shield themselves with the Force, as Ahsoka unleashed a domed pressure wave, that shattered the polished tile of the library and hurled the Jedi around her away like rag dolls in the face of a bomb, followed by a rain of sharpened floor shards. Of course, performing such an improvised, sudden feat felt like a sucker punch to the gut to Ahsoka, but she shook it off as best she was able, sucking in a strained breath.

Mace Windu and Agen Kolar had managed to stay on their feet and were drawing their 'sabers, Obi-Wan and Plo Koon were dizzied and sprawled across the floor but recovering fast, Kit Fisto had been slammed against the end of a Stacks shelf no farther than a couple yards away, and Shaak-Ti was mercifully unconscious, having had her montrals slammed with incredibly painfully force against the wall. _'So now we begin,'_ Ahsoka though grimly.

Kit Fisto went for his lightsaber hilt clipped to his belt, but Ahsoka was desperate... and a split second faster, hurling out a wild, searing round of azure Force lighting from her right hand.

"Aaaghh!" the Nautolan cried, as he involuntarily arched his back in absolute agony, green, dreadlock-like head tails spasming wildly. Ahsoka winced; definitely more than a little effective against Nautolans. She actually felt bad about taking him down with that; Kit Fisto was perhaps even friendlier and more agreeable than Obi-Wan on most occasions.

She released the lighting and snatched Kit Fisto up in a painful Force grip with her left hand. With a motion, she hurled him at the charging Agen Kolar, who was forced to deactivate his emerald 'saber and be bowled over, lest he accidently impale his ally.

A twitch from the slightly smoking glove of Ahsoka's right hand slipped her primary, emerald lightsaber from her pouch to her hand with the Force just in time to block a powerful, horizontal slash from Mace Windu that staggered the Togruta badly.

"So you truly have fallen so far from the Light? Your petty bitterness has caused you to aspire to become a Dark Acolyte?" Windu spoke, making a vertical swing.

Ahsoka summersaulted away backwards but was caught by a concentrated pressure wave of the Force, that Windu had imbued into the attack, and was smashed into a pillar, cracking the stone audibly. Having only minorly increased her body's durability against the attack, Ahsoka choked out blood. She growled, "It's not like I've got a choice! Who does ever have a choice, with all you damn fanatics waging your little religion war! Have you people ever even considered _trying_ to make peace with the Sith?"

She scrambled to her feet and drew her yellow shoto, bringing it and her primary 'saber up in a cross to block another of the Vaapad Master's downward strikes. Ahsoka's knees buckled under the punishment of the Force-reinforced blow, and the tile cracked loudly. She winced in realization. _'Kriff, I forgot! He's a Vapaad Master; all this Dark side energy I'm throwing off must be making him stronger by the second!'_

"The Sith are tyrants and murderers and must all be destroyed for the sake of the Galaxy. The _Jedi_ are the Galaxy's peace keepers," Mace Windu spoke evenly -like a patronizing adult to a foolish child.

"Under just _whose_ definition of peace? The _Jedi's_?! That's genocide; you're hardly any better than the worst of them!" growled Ahsoka, who lashed out with a Force-enhanced kick to Mace Windu's sternum, launching the surprised Jedi several yards into the air -surprised mostly that her Dark side presence was actually clouding his senses enough to make him take such a kick. Mace Windu landed with no trouble and retook his aggressive Form VII stance towards the heavily-breathing Togruta.

Out of the corner of her vision, Ahsoka noted that Obi-Wan, Plo Koon, and Agen Kolar were all recovered and had drawn their lightsabers. Ahsoka switched her hold on her lightsabers into her favored, defensive Shien reverse grip, taking a crouched stance.

"Ahsoka," Obi-Wan spoke quietly. "Please surrender; we can talk this out peacefully."

Ahsoka chuckled wryly -bitterly- and spat out a globule of blood. "Master Kenobi, for all your negotiating prowess I sense even _you_ don't believe those words. The Jedi Order as a whole destroys _all_ Darksiders, and I'm not willing to die just yet."

"Ahsoka..." started Plo Koon, only to be cut off by Windu resuming the assault.

Mace Windu hurled a small, round table at Ahsoka with the Force, that the Torguta batted away with her own Force manipulation, only to have her shoulder nicked deeply by Agen Kolar's emerald blade, as the horned Zabrak lunged with the ferocious speed of his style.

Ahsoka choked back a cry of pain and attempted a Force push, but the Jedi Master countered with his own, blasting the combatants away from each other. Ahsoka rolled away from another of Mace Windu's ridiculously strong offensives, that once again sent chunks of the floor flying and dug a deep trench through the ground, and fended off several strikes from Plo Koon's azure 'saber with her green one.

_'Kriff, kriff, kriff!'_ Ahsoka cursed mentally. _'I need to fight back; I need to throw them off -be unorthodox!'_

Ahsoka jumped upwards and backwards with the Force, setting her booted feet against a pillar and launching herself back towards the Jedi at rocket speeds. Bringing her knees into her chest and increasing her momentum with the Force, Ahsoka turned herself into a veritable, midair buzz saw of yellow-green light.

Ahsoka's Force-enforced emerald 'saber impacted Mace Windu's horizontal block with his purple one. This time, however, it was the Jedi who staggered. Ahsoka kept her momentum going to launch herself towards another pillar and ricochet off it like the former, coming down for an even stronger strike that launched Master Kolar off his feet.

Ahsoka landed on the floor proper with a stagger. For all her endurance training, pulling off such severely enhanced acrobatics was exhausting. The Togruta was starting to feel like she might be bordering her last legs, and so she deactivated her 'sabers and fired out a wide-spread web of Force lightning at the Jedi Masters.

Obi-Wan and Agen Kolar blocked, Plo Koon ducked behind a Stacks shelf, and Mace Windu actually began _redirecting_ the deadly, blue bolts from long distance with a tilt of his lightsaber.

Ahsoka shrieked in pain, as several of her own bolts glanced off her right arm, forcing the former Padawan to relinquish her hold on the technique. Then Plo Koon spun back into view and stretched out his clawed hand. Ahsoka didn't even have time to blink before a pristine, green bolt of Force lightning -Electric Judgement she recalled- slammed into her stomach, knocking her off her feet and sending her to the tile in a crumpled, twitching wreck.

Ahsoka shuddered in pain and grit her teeth but layed still, playing possum while she did her best to shake off the effects of the electricity, which was coursing through her veins and causing her muscles to spasm. She gathered the Force to her internal injuries and set to work on a patch job; Ahsoka was certain there were several broken bones in her torso and that several organs must be bruised or otherwise damaged somewhat.

"Well," she heard Obi-Wan muse. "_That_ could have gone better."

Ahsoka heard heavy foots steps and Plo Koon's mechanical, concerned voice. "What are you doing, Windu?" The light hum of a lightsaber told her that said thrice-damned Council member was standing right beside her, and his blade was still lit.

"You _saw_ what she did," Mace Windu said. "She did all this _without_ proper Sith training. She's too dangerous to be left alive."

_'Woah, deja vu,'_ Ahsoka thought, remembering her visions. _'Does this guy treat all Darksiders this way?'_

"That's not the Jedi way," Obi-Wan commented. "We never found out why she was here. She should be interrogated."

_'Okay, that is not going to happen, not with Windu of all Jedi! I need to escape, and I need to do it _now_!'_ Ahsoka's golden eyes snapped open, and she drew the Force into and through her right arm, slamming her fist onto the ground. At that moment, everything around her that wasn't bolted down went flying into the air, as the Force reverberated through the ground and exploded upwards, including the caught off guard Jedi in the room.

Ahsoka scrambled to her feet and launched herself into the air and over the balcony to the second floor of the Archives, retrieving her lightsabers with the Force as she did so. Wasting no time, Ahsoka reeled in the Dark side and dashed full-tilt through the halls of the Temple with reckless abandon, passing by alarmed Jedi without a glance.

She was sure she was leaving a blood trail from her shoulder and arm, but that didn't matter. All that mattered at that moment was getting the hell out of the Temple and far away from human tanks like Windu.

The second she saw a window, Ahsoka raised a hand and shattered it with a small pulse of the Force, leaping out without pause. Reinforcing her legs with the Force, Ahsoka landed in a crouch and rolled to rid herself of unnecessary momentum.

Some falling glass nicked her, but Ahsoka ignored it. The burning in her lungs and shoulder was far more prevalent. The Force screamed in warning, and Ahsoka stumble-jumped to safety, as the area where she had stood a second prior became a crater.

Propelled by the shockwave and battered mercilessly by rubble, Ahsoka crashed to the pavement outside the Temple in an uncontrolled tumble and didn't get up -though not for lack of trying. Her body had reached its limits, and now she was helpless.

"It's over, _Darksider_, You chose your side, and you chose _wrong_," Windu stated with finality, brown Jedi cloak thrashing in the wind, as he drew his lightsaber and ignited it once more. In any other circumstance, Ahsoka might have thought Mace looked rather badass, but in this case, Ahsoka was inclined to focus on his intent and despondently agree.

Suddenly, there was a whooshing sound overhead, and a distinctive, copper-colored Solar Sailor ship pulled in to hover over the Jedi Temple courtyard. Its back was facing them and opened, extending a ramp to allow the caped form of Count Dooku to stride out onto it.

Dooku smirked at the scene; this was perfect. Stepping off the ramp, Dooku slowed his fall to a crawl with the Force, hovering down to the ground, as he casually drew his lightsaber hilt. "Just look at what the Jedi Order has become in my absence, members of the Council ganging up on _children_; it's rather abhorring honestly," he spoke amicably with his ever superior grin, though the confidence was lacking somewhat at the arrival of the other still conscious Jedi Council members.

_'Show off,'_ Ahsoka scoffed mentally. Her white facial markings twitched in annoyance, when the Sith seemed to sense her thoughts and smirk in her direction. Ahsoka decided to try and ignore him for now and try to focus on healing her body to an operational condition.

"Why are you here, _Dooku_?" Windu demanded harshly. The other Jedi in the courtyard ignited their lightsabers. "Are you truly so arrogant as to attack the Jedi in their own home?" Dooku just grinned in response, making the Jedi bristle.

Obi-Wan's eyes narrowed, as he looked between Serenno Count and the gasping Togruta. "You're here for Ahsoka." It was a statement. "What do you want with her?"

"Very perceptive -as always, Master Kenobi," Dooku praised somewhat mockingly. "As for your inquiry; I suppose I have no reason to conceal my intentions. _Surely_, Jedi Masters such as yourselves can sense what I can. It's not every day you discover someone with such an extraordinarily powerful natural Dark side affinity."

A Dark side affinity; several Jedi in the courtyard looked more than a little alarmed. Some beings were born with a natural inclination to one side or the other, but they were incredibly rare -Dark side affinities even more so. And those gifted few had unheard of potential to become great, terrible, or a mixture of the two.

Dooku's crimson lightsaber ignited, and he brought it up into his iconic, vertical starting salute with his left arm behind his back before swinging it down into his Form II fencing stance. "I certainly hope you don't intend to stand in my way; such potential shouldn't be wasted."

"I'm afraid we can't let you do that," Obi-Wan stated, taking his own Form III defensive stance between Ahsoka and Dooku.

"So be it," acknowledged Dooku in a grim tone. "It seems we shall settle this little disagreement with the blade. Tano, why don't you think on my offer -the chance to receive _real_ training in the ways of the Dark side, while I demonstrate what a true wielder of the Force is capable of."

For a few seconds, no one moved. Then without warning, Mace Windu covered the distance to Dooku in a second of eye-wateringly fast speed -only to be forced to backpedal away from a set of similarly blindingly fast thrusts. Dooku immediately pivoted and jumped, twirling midair over a horizontal slash from Agen Kolar.

Dooku struck Kolar in the face with a boot and landed, parrying a low-high combo from Plo Koon and spinning on the ball of his foot to dodge a decapitating strike from Windu. Agen Kolar returned with a calm vengeance, but Dooku matched his aggressive strikes blow for blow with calm indifference.

Stretching out his previously unoccupied left hand, Dooku blasted a powerful surge of lighting at Plo Koon in order to force the Kel Dor to back off and block. With another wave of his hand, Dooku abated the Force lightning and penetrated the Jedi Master's Force aura in a second, blasting him off his feet with a Force push -all while continuing to almost _boredly_ defend against Agen Kolar's increasingly frenetic attacks.

A nameless Jedi Master, who Ahsoka honestly couldn't ever remember even glimpsing around the Temple attempted to engage Dooku from behind with his own Makashi form. Dooku shattered any illusions anyone else had about interfering with such a high level conflict with _any_ degree of success by easily fading under the thrust into the nameless Jedi Master's guard before he could even _hope_ to react and calmly bisecting him.

Even as she cringed, Ahsoka couldn't help but be impressed; she knew Dooku had been good -but not _this_ good. She honestly wasn't sure who to root for here. On one hand, this was _Dooku_ she was talking about here. On the other hand, the Jedi _had_ tried to kill her -_Windu_ to be more specific, but he had a lot of clout with the Jedi masses. Meanwhile, she could actually _move_ again, but it would be agonizing on her overtaxed muscles. So Ahsoka resolved to lay still until she made up her mind who to help; that or until Dooku ended up in mortal peril -as she figured he eventually would no matter how good he was. She did still have a mission to preserve as many Darksiders as possible, after all.

After Plo went flying, Obi-Wan finally abandoned his stationary post to enter the fray, blocking what would have been a fatal lightsaber strike to the heart, as Dooku held Agen up in a Force grip. A few more exchanges passed similarly with Obi-Wan using his defensive style to block and counter the more dangerous strikes at his fellow Masters.

Dooku suddenly carved his blade into the ground and wrenched up a chunk of pavement with the Force to hurl at the returning Plo Koon, waylaying him further. A split second later, he lashed several thrusts into Agen's guard, slashing him lightly -yet nonfatally- across the chest.

Mace Windu blasted the ground at Dooku's feet with the Force, surprising the Count and throwing him into the air. Dooku recovered without trouble but was now put on the defensive by the devastating counter attack of the Jedi SIC. Mace Windu struck low at the knees, thrice horizontally at chest level, low, then a series of Force-imbued verticals chops.

Dooku blocked the first few strikes and immediately forewent trying to block the verticals to side-step them, fighting conservatively to prevent Mace Windu from recycling his Dark side energy into fuel for Vapaad and slashing at Windu's stomach. The Vaapad Master batted the strike away and retaliated with a flurry to the torso, managing to get a light blow on the Count's abdominals, that burned and bled slightly but could be ignored by Dooku easily thanks to his high pain threshold.

Agen Kolar came whirling in from behind, but Dooku flipped backwards over him, blocking Agen's retaliatory vertical swing and aiming for a fatal horizontal of his own -only for Obi-Wan to be there and block it easily. At this point, Ahsoka was having trouble focusing on healing herself and not watching the amazing display of speed and overwhelming skill.

The Sith Lord was a blistering whirlwind of red and black, as he stopped playing around completely and finally took the battle quite seriously, having been injured even slightly. Windu, Kolar, and Kenobi slowly formed a triangle around Dooku, beginning to better coordinate their strikes and finally get into a feel for the duel. Suddenly, Dooku jerked in place and froze, surprise and annoyance etched onto his face; Ahsoka turned her head from her laying position and immediately saw the cause.

Plo Koon, lightsaber deactivated, both arms outstretched, and brow scrunched up in utmost concentration, was holding Count Dooku frozen in place, unable to move an inch.

"It's over, Count," Obi-Wan stated. Mace Windu lunged, and Ahsoka panicked.

_'He can't die! The Balance depends on him being alive! I won't let them!'_ "NO!" she shouted, lurching upwards, as her orange skin paled and eyes flushed golden once more. Ahsoka's arms thrust forward with the intention of freeing Dooku by blasting Plo Koon off his feet with a Force push and stunning Windu with a faster jolt of Force lightning. Or at least... that was her original intention. Unknowingly, the Togruta's muddled mind had melded the techniques together into a ranged, single direction version of the Force lightning dome.

The 'lightning-fast' half dome of crackling, azure electrical arcs bowled over an unprepared Plo Koon from behind, freeing Count Dooku and allowing him to barely side-step Windu's deadly thrust, and slammed into the other Jedi Council members and Dooku, sending them sprawling on the chalk-white pavement.

Ahsoka staggered to her feet, lungs stuttering and swaying with bone-deep exhaustion, and copied Windu by blasting the ground at Plo Koon's feet with an explosive Force push, that sent him hurtling before he could recover along with yet more white chunks of the abused courtyard. Dooku leapt away from the Jedi and signaled his FA-4 pilot droid over a comlink to bring his Solar Sailor in for a low hover and lower the ramp. He turned to Ahsoka, "I take it you've decided to accept my proposal?"

"_F-Force_, Dooku, don't word it weird," Ahsoka grumbled, spitting out more blood that had pooled in her mouth. "This 'ain't a kriffin' marriage, you sleemo." The Serenno Count just looked mildly amused at her cheek. She glanced around at the Jedi with narrowed, golden eyes. _'If I do accept, I'll definitely be Jedi public enemy number 1 for the foreseeable future, but I suppose I can work on fixing that later. I do need to eventually try to instigate some sort of peace between these trigger-happy brutes.'_

Suddenly, Ahsoka felt a poking at her mental defenses. Turning to the source, she spotted the diminutive figure of Yoda, standing hidden behind a pillar at the Jedi Temple entrance. _"Trust in the Force, young Tano. Works in mysterious ways, it does,"_ she heard the Jedi Grandmaster rumble assuringly in her mind. Nodding slightly, deciding to do just that, and feeling out the Force as a whole whilst the new standoff provided time, Ahsoka felt a near insignificant mental tugging. Turning her head, she was greeted by a raised, grey brow from Dooku, who was looking over his shoulder at her.

Snorting in disbelief, Ahsoka shook her head. Well then, who was she to deny the will of the Force and forego a chance to learn under a full-blown _Sith_? This could certainly work in her favor with what she needed to do eventually. She looked towards Yoda, then back at Dooku. She gave the Jedi Grandmaster another glance and saw him nod.

Taking that as a sign he wouldn't hold her decision against her -as she valued her acquaintanceship with the elderly alien, Ahsoka steeled herself and forced herself into a painful run towards Dooku. "Whatever, I'll go with you. Let's just get out of here," the Togruta said blandly.

Dooku nodded his acknowledgement, as the Jedi moved to intercept them. Ahsoka grunted in pain, gasping slightly, as she strained her body and mind once more to blast Force lightning at the Jedi, which was yet again easily blocked. That was getting tiresome. Dooku leaped high into the air and landed safely on the ramp of his Solar Sailor. Ahsoka felt him prodding at her Force defenses and let him in, allowing the Count to levitate her easily into his ship with him, as she ceased her Dark side technique.

* * *

The Solar Sailor rumbled, as it took off safely into the atmosphere, shrugging off several Jedis' attempts to use the Force to pull it down due to having been warded against such tampering with several applications of Sith runes by Dooku.

Heart hammering frenetically within her chest, Ahsoka couldn't help but slump against the wall of the single room of the Count's shuttle in exhaustion and relief. Her breathing came in tired whooshes. "That... That was t-too close."

A single amber eye opened and swiveled to where Dooku was sitting at the front of the ship, closing up his wounds with Force healing -something he actually happened to be quite proficient in. The Count rumbled something of a silent agreement, as he swept a critical gaze over her battered form.

Ahsoka stiffened, as she finally fully comprehended her position and gave an awkward cough, straightening up a bit. "I.. Uh- Well, I guess I have to say thanks -even if that doesn't mean much to someone like you." Dooku raised a brow. "Sorry: stereotypes. It's not like I know you well enough to judge. I- Actually..." She paused and gave him a flat look. "Were you stalking me?"

Dooku chuckled in amusement. "The Force has many powers you have yet to comprehend, Tano. I watched your self training -something that, while leaving much to be desired, is satisfactory- this morning and witnessed your conversation with Master Yoda. Naturally, your plan to further your knowledge in the Light was reckless with your condition and doomed to potentially deadly levels of failure. How could I -as a Sith- leave such potential to be squandered and stomped out by those fools?"

Ahsoka snorted. "_Yeah_, don't think I don't know your Master, Darth Sidious, put you up to this." Dooku stiffened at that and narrowed his eyes, and Ahsoka rolled her own golden eyes. "Whoa now, don't freak out; it's just pretty obvious. His presence practically _smothers_ Coruscant, and I've felt like I've had eyes on my back for a while. And it's not just that; I imagine you wouldn't want to be getting a new apprentice so soon after, well... Ventress."

"Be that as it may..." said low and seriously. "How do _you_ know the name, _Sidious_?"

Ahsoka blinked. "Oh, that? Is it really so uncommonly known? I suppose I should tell you, since we'll apparently be spending some time together, and since you wouldn't stop till you'd gotten it out of me anyway... Well, for all the months since leaving the Order, I've been having these visions. Or at least, I'm pretty kriffin' sure they're visions. They had _better be_ for all the nightmares and loss of sleep! I needed those hours!" She shook her fist at nothing before coughing and shifting awkwardly.

"Visions you say?" Dooku asked, intrigued. He wondered what she had seen; perhaps it had been the cause of her current situation.

"Oh yeah..." Ahsoka sighed with a tired nod. "They've been pretty vivid and seem to focus on the fates of most of those I have connections with in the Force in some way. And well... Heh, heh. The funny thing about fate is that it's not always so pretty. All I see in these visions are the events of a _single_ day. In them, Sidious gets some new hooded apprentice, a Darth... _Vader_, to help him wipe out the entire Jedi Order... So you see, no matter what, there never was a future for me as a Jedi -even before I left the Order. It's kinda' depressing seeing pretty much my entire life so far as being a waste. I was probably destined from the start to become a Dark Acolyte."

While outwardly calm, Dooku inwardly was thinking furiously. He could sense nothing but the truth in her words. The Jedi Order destroyed? He knew they were corrupt, but that was a _bit_ much, right? More importantly to him, his thoughts latched onto the existence of this Vader, who Sidious would recruit -replace him with. That thought set his brows in a hard line. Certainly, Sidious would not take any new apprentice but one who had bested his prior one. And that sort of thing generally _never_ happened by _accident or chance_ when it came to the Sith. That meant that Sidious would likely betray him in the near future and recruit his killer. This required thinking, meditation, and several contingency plans. His gaze fell back on Ahsoka, whose eyes had softened in quiet mourning for the future loss of life. Hmm... Perhaps, he could- Yes... Yes, that would do perfectly.

Dooku scoffed loudly. "The title of _Dark Acolyte_ would be an insult to your power and what you could become," he spoke with conviction. "You shall be trained in the ways of a true Sith." Ahsoka's eyes widened in surprise but quickly narrowed in focused contemplation. "Be warned, however, that the journey to greatness will _not_ be an easy one. It _will_ be painful, and at times it will seem as though the Force itself has forsaken you. A true Sith has no room for weakness, so you shall be trained in all facets of Sith lore and ability and all Jedi abilities at my disposal. A fool limits themselves to a single side of the Force. So, will you, Ahsoka Tano, pledge yourself to these teachings and dedicate yourself to becoming a Sith as they were meant to be?" It was at this point that Dooku stood from his seat and strode over to her, standing tall with his arms crossed behind his back.

Ahsoka blinked several times and then inhaled deeply, forcing her tired body to its' feet with a lurch. This was certainly an interesting turn of events, but she wasn't about to pass up the chance for more advanced training. With a shaky bow -during which her knees buckled- Ahsoka spoke definitively with a face of steel. "I will... _Master_ Dooku. I will do whatever it takes to learn to control my power."

Dooku smiled. "Then rise, my new apprentice." She did so shakily, and he had to smile at her dogged determination. Ahsoka Tano would most certainly make a better apprentice than Ventress ever had and ever could have been. He would teach her the use of the Dark side as it always should have been used. He was quite sure that Tano would surpass all Sith before her; in fact, he would make sure of it. Yes, this would do perfectly...

Ahsoka suddenly collapsed to the ground, completely drained and out cold. Of course, planning and training could wait till after he healed her half-dead body... An eyebrow twitched. Yep, best to prioritize these things now. He couldn't allow his new apprentice to die on the way to his mansion from mere strain, after all. And also, blood stains were just so difficult to get out of things...

* * *

**AN: FRICK! HOW DID THIS GET SO LONG! Honestly! I have no idea how what shouldn't have been much ended up being over 8,000 words long! DX Ugh, anywho... Finally updated this, so now maybe I can get around to working on my other stories. I feel like this was a bit rushed, so the chapter may be edited several times from what you see here later.**

**I hope I'm writing Yoda and the other Jedi right. To me, he was always the wise yet eccentric and supportive 'old grandfather' of the Jedi. Mace Windu was just a hypocritical asshole most of the time. It may be slightly AU, but I'm going to enhance that particular characteristic as well as the fact that in one of the CW series he was a freaking army-killer tank -even without his lightsaber.**

**And people, I hope you didn't seriously think she'd be able to fight Jedi _Masters_ and come out on top just yet. It was pretty hard trying to write a fight scene against _six_ Jedi Masters and have there be even a believable snowball's chance in hell of her getting away, especially since she was already tired from training and completely unprepared. It all depended on the element of surprise, but once she lost that she was getting smacked around like no one's business.**

**I'll admit: I may have ramped Dooku up a bit too far, but c'mon -he's awesome. They state rather specifically several times on Star Wars wikia that he was one of -if not the- best duelist to ever come out of the Jedi Order. And that was just when he was a Jedi. He got even better after he left.**

**Also, Mace Windu could match Dooku, but Windu's style is wild and destructive and not suited for working with others. They'd get caught in the crossfire. So he has to hold back; the same was true when dueling Ahsoka. At this point in time, he'd easily obliterate her going all out.**

**This Chapter was all mostly a set up for her to end up training with Dooku in a way that she'd actually be okay with that as compared to the Jedi. What better way than to have one of its Order's top members be determined to kill her, especially a poster boy like Mace Windu.**

**Recently, I discovered a great way to plan out my stories' progression. When starting a new chapter, I now make a summary at the end of the chapter to use as a guideline for writing it. Here was the one I did for this chapter.**

**Chapter plot: Ahsoka starts new training regimen. Ahsoka gets assistance from Yoda to reach the Jedi Archives in order to study the Great Holocron. Led by Mace Windu, most of the rest of the Jedi Council discover and confront Ahsoka about her Dark side usage, unflinchingly believing that she has fallen to the Dark side. Ahsoka is forced to fight and flee, getting annoyed and angry at their persistent short-sidedness. Count Dooku comes to Ahsoka's rescue and helps her escape the Masters. Count Dooku offers Ahsoka Dark side training from him. Ahsoka surprises him with an eagerness to learn, and thus begins her proper training in the Dark arts.**

**Anywho... R&amp;R! :D**


	4. Blurring Lines

**Disclaimer: Don't own Star Wars or its characters. All this belongs to Lucasarts, except my OCs, if any.**

**AN: I'm so glad you people like how I did the last chapter and how I portrayed Dooku and the Jedi. ****Sorry I took so long to update. I know a lot of people are enjoying this fic, and that makes me ecstatic!**

**The part that slowed me down the most was researching Serenno and Dooku's mansion. I wanted this all to be as accurate as possible -or as far as any AU story can be, anyway. Eventually, the largest part of this chapter ended up being an interlude in the Jedi Temple with some familiar faces and a completely new one.**

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**(Review Responses! :D)**

** MartyrFan: ****Glad you like it so much! Thanks!**

** Lord of Carrion: ****:3 Happy to see someone thinks I'm keeping them in character!**

** Ann: I'll get around to Anakin's reaction soon enough, but for now he's off on a mission.**

** Hotchick43273: Thanks! :D**

** x-05-x: Well, I would hope it is. lol**

** Vega Tenala: I'll bet you can't, so here it is! XD**

** Guest1: ****Unfortunately, that's rather cliché, so it's not happening... ever. -_-' I mean, she _might_ get a hold of the Darksaber and keep it, but that's as far as this line of plot will go. Glad you like it so far, though.**

** nightmarehunter676:**

**AHHHHHHHHHHH! ****GREAT REVIEW!  
GREAT RESPONSE!  
MADE MY ENTIRE DAY!  
I HAVE!  
LOL! XD**

** tf330129: Did and will. :)**

** MysteryAhsoka: Don't worry, this won't ever be abandoned. I may lose inspiration a lot, but it will be finished... eventually. TT_TT**

** Nightraze: You shall.**

** Starray13: Well, due to lack of inspiration, that's not really something I can do, but I do my best to write a ton, when the fire of Creativity is in me!**

** Matt: I've heard of Force Storm, random though the question may be. Food for thought to maybe feed the story later, though. Good idea. Yes, I know Starkiller could wield both sides of the Force, but he isn't even born yet, is he? So the point is kinda' moot. I don't even have any intention of him being even mentioned.**

** Mo: ... What? -_-' Huh? I think I'll just ignore that and keep calling it what it is.**

** Guest2: Better stoke the fires of Creation then! *flexes* YOUTH! *universe implodes***

** Guest3: Thanks! I shall!**

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Ch 4: Blurring Lines

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12 year-old Jedi Youngling, Katooni stalked through the Temple with a face scrunched in up irritation, as the purple seedpods of her headdress flaring slightly in response to her unease in the Force. She couldn't believe the _nerve_ of Petro after everything Ahsoka had done for them in the past, protecting them from pirates, battle droids, and even stalling _the_ General Grievous alone.

* * *

_The Tholothian and her fellow Initiate Younglings had been having 'saber class outside the Temple, when Ahsoka Tano, a Togruta the whole of Coruscant knew well by now, had come crashing out of a second story window, being viciously pursued by Mace Windu and three fellow High Council members._

_"Why is it always the _windows_?" Ganodi, the female Rodian, had sighed rather rhetorically._

_"We do appear to be having the most interesting training sessions lately," the Nautolan, Zatt remarked dryly to her. "Remember Barriss?" There were nods and grunts of agreement._

_The group could only gape, when the Separatist leader and known Sith, Count Dooku, arrived in style to rescue Ahsoka. The confrontation that followed was blindingly fast and echoed with the power of both sides of the Force, showing the Younglings a fleeting glimpse of just what _exactly_ they had to achieve to be true _Masters_._

_Then Dooku had suddenly been caught, and Mace Windu took the chance to finally kill him and end the war. Or at least, that's what Petro kept raving about, as he cheered the Council members on. But Ahsoka's interference had come out of nowhere, blind-sighting the Jedi and allowing her to make an escape with Dooku._

_For a moment there was shock and disbelief among the Younglings; then, the whispers started along with an edge of panic. Petro instantly started raving, calling Ahsoka a traitor and outright Sith, Ganodi had ducked behind the Wookie, Byph, who let out a low worried whine, and Zett just frowned seriously, muttering in low voices with Gungi._

_Mentally analyzing it, Katooni _could_ understand Ahsoka helping Dooku. Based on the banter exchanged, she really hadn't had anything to do with Dooku until now, so the Jedi couldn't possibly be attacking her for that. Circumstance had obviously forced Ahsoka's hand; it was either stay and most definitely be executed by Windu or leave with Dooku and become Jedi enemy number 1. Though her distaste and reluctance had been plain to see, Ahsoka had chosen the only option really available._

_She was soon brought out of her reverie, as Petro's yelling reached a pitch, and the other Younglings started nodding hesitantly in agreement to something he had said._

_Katooni blinked incredulously. "You all aren't _seriously_ considering Ahsoka to be in the wrong here, are you?" Ahsoka had been a roll-model to her ever since the day she had helped them make it safely through their suddenly treacherous Gathering. To her, Ahsoka was everything a Jedi should be, brave, kind, and passionate about what she believed in. The Togruta was her inspiration, and emulating her had helped with her confidence issues._

_Petro scoffed. "How could she not be? Did you even _feel_ her in the Force?!"_

_"Well ye-"_

_"I seriously felt like I was going to die!" he yelled. Gungi warbled an agreement to feeling the same. "There is no way she's not evil, using the Dark side like that, and she was _definitely_ using it!"_

_"I-"_

_"I've never felt such malevolence," Zett put in his two cents. "It was like all Light had been swallowed up by an eternal blackness from which no goodness can escape." He sighed. "Unfortunate, really."_

_"Zett, you can't really be-"_

_"I-I've n-never felt so terrified in my _life_," Ganodi trembled, cone-like antennae twitching erratically, as Byph put a comforting paw on her shoulder and rumbled things none of the other Younglings understood, probably something about suppressing her fear. Obviously, she had been the most affected. It was quite unnerving to see the intelligent, lively Rodian reduced to a quivering mess. "It was far worse than when Dooku showed up or even when we were right in front of Grievous!"_

_"Exactly, Grievous!" Katooni snapped. "And there were the pirates before that as well and even battle droids; she took them all down. We wouldn't even be here without Ahsoka. How can you all just turn on her like this -and so _quickly_? I'm honestly baffled by your behavior. Wasn't her farce of a trial a grand example of how we shouldn't just call it as we see it?! It was a perfect lesson on looking underneath the underneath, something the Council apparently forgot."_

_"Uh, did you _not_ see _Master Windu_ himself coming down on her with all he's got?" Petro snorted. "He doesn't just do that for everyone, and he's a Jedi Master. He's the strongest Jedi Master there is, in fact, and you should put more faith in his judgment. As the Jedi second in command, he knows best. Besides, we had to rescue Ahsoka right back, so it's all square."_

_"Just like he -along with the rest of the Council- knew best, when Ahsoka was obviously _innocent_ of bombing the Temple?" Katooni suddenly spat venomously. This was nothing really new from Petro; the Windu hero-worship had always been there. Katooni had just never realized how pronounced -fanatical even- it was. She also knew that it was this exact attitude -this unbending loyalty, obedience, and enthusiasm- that had Master Wundu looking at Petro as a potential Padawan. And Force help them all if _that_ came to be; he would never cease his bragging again._

_The others were rather put-off by the level of defensiveness she was taking. It was entirely unusual for her to be so insistent and aggressive. "Calm yourself, Katooni," Zatt said. "You are putting too much thought into this-"_

_"_Am I_?!" the words that cut him off were a barely-contained shriek. "You are all unbelievable!"_

_Petro stepped forward. "Look, this is getting out of hand. It's pretty obvious you formed some sort of attachment to the traitor at some point. All you need to do is just let go, and admit the Masters are r-"_

_"She is _not_ a _**traitor**_!" Katooni roared. Something foreign flickered in her eyes, accompanied by an involuntary Force push stronger than anything the other Younglings had ever managed, which bowled the others over right on their butts. Petro had actually been flung about a yard from his closer proximity._

_Petro felt something warm trickle from his nose as he sat up, and his fingers came away red, when he wiped it away. His widened eyes swiveled to look up at Katooni, who appeared to be equally shocked by her drastic loss of control. Glancing around, Petro could see their altercation had attracted attention from the other Jedi in the courtyard. "You're going to get it now," he muttered._

_Katooni seemed to realize this, because her face screwed up in a grimace, cheeks red from a mixture of shame and anger. Then, she scowled and quickly stormed off, brutishly avoiding any attempts to have her attention and in absolutely no mood to receive a duel interrogation and lecture._

* * *

Katooni huffed and turned another corner, coming across the small blood trail left by Ahsoka during her escape. The Tholothian immediately began to follow the trail back to its source. Ahsoka was anything _but_ evil. She had a good heart, and there must be a reason for her being here. After everything the Jedi had put her through, she deserved to be left in peace to her own devices far away from any more treachery.

No, none of them had any idea what they were talking about. It was ridiculous; anyone who would put themselves between that metal monster and any of his goals deserved to be congratulated and commended -at the very _least_, which was all a Jedi generally ended up getting at the _most_. It was absolutely no trivial thing to face the Jedi Slayer, General Grievous. Those few minutes of terror were still etched into her brain.

Though, that massive, crushing flare of the Dark side -for, that was certainly what it was, which had pressed down on the Temple, before Ahsoka leaped out the window unsettled her somewhat. Especially unnerving in that instance, wasn't how large the presence had been, but the fact that the Dark side of the Force had actually "greeted" her like a long lost friend, roiling around her and caressing her senses almost lovingly. She -to her own horror- had _enjoyed_ the sudden spike of awareness and ability. She had had to force herself to pull away from the feeling.

_That_, the terrified shock and surprise of such an event, in turn was what _actually_ had her falling to her knees like her fellow Younglings, instead of the feeling of oppression that had them gagging and gasping for breath.

The blood trail ended at one of the entrances to the second floor of the library. Katooni paused, flinching slightly, at the heavy lingering presence of the Dark side here. After a moment of deep depate, Katooni bit her lip lightly and steeled her will, before slowly pushing open the looming double doors.

The Tholothian girl slipped silently inside, carefully closing the door in her wake and muffling the sound with a light application of the Force. Her head swiveled around to check that she had not been seen or heard, purple seedpod headdress swinging lightly with the motion.

It was eerily silent, and yet, the depths swirling mysteriously with the Dark side called to her. The Jedi instructors always said to trust your instincts -trust the Force- but to have restraint in the same breath. So Katooni closed her eyes, sucked in a slow breath, let that breath out just as slowly, and let herself be guided. She felt the oh so light -so barely there these days- tug on her senses and followed it.

As she crept deeper in, the shadows seemed to grow longer, taller, and more consuming, and yet she did not feel threatened. The Jedi library, currently plunged into a wellspring of the Dark side, felt more like home than any other place she had ever been -more like home than the Temple had ever felt, and that was scary in and of itself.

What was _wrong_ with her? Why was she suddenly so determined to do this, to rebel and investigate this way? She definitely shouldn't be here. The Council wouldn't want _anyone_ to be here, till they'd purged the Dark side corruption completely. Just what exactly had Ahsoka _done_ to her? Not that she was blaming Ahsoka, since this definitely seemed to have been an accident, but _still_... It was so _welcoming_, the Dark side; she could practically reach out and-

_'NO!'_ Katooni shook those thoughts out of her head. She took another deep breath and continued on silently, more unnerved than ever.

Stretching out her senses, Katooni began to pick up some faint whispers up ahead. Peeking over the balcony, Katooni could only gape at the destruction decorating the First Hall. Scorch marks, slashes, and deep gouges ran up the walls and pillars, freaking _craters_ littered the floors, and furniture was laying about shattered and slashed to pieces. And the Dark side... It was almost like a _physical force_ here; Katooni shuddered, whether in unease or pleasure she could not say.

Clinging to the Light, Katooni forced herself to a sense of clarity; she still couldn't discern the source of the whispering voices. After a few moments of searching, she finally saw them. Hunched over behind one of the stacks -out of sight were one not looking from the higher balcony- was a male, teen human gripping the shoulders of a small female Zabrak, who looked to be about her age, and whispering with furious seriousness.

His voice seemed to be steadily climbing in volume, as he gave the girl's shoulders a good shake. The Zabrak girl just gave an audibly unhinged giggle, and the young man flinched away. He suddenly started and stood abruptly, hand twitching towards his lightsaber, before calming, when he looked _right at_ Katooni.

"Oi, get down here; I can sense you up there, kid," came his rather informal call. "You're practically broadcasting your presence!"

Katooni stiffened in alarm. He had sensed her! She must be in trouble now, just like that other girl! She had to leave; he couldn't get a good look at her face from there!

"Now, now, there will be none of that," the human announced. Katooni gave a small yelp, as she felt her robes grasped by the scruff of the neck with the Force. Smoothly, she was lifted from her hiding place over the balcony towards the young man, who had a single black-gloved hand outstretched. Katooni struggled and thrashed for a moment before finding it useless and resigning herself to her fate.

Mentally, she noted how it was pretty impressive for him to be lifting a living being so easily, as living things naturally repelled Force manipulation. As she was brought closer, Katooni examined his features. He was wearing short, grey robes with a green undershirt, black pants and boots, and -strangely enough- a brown trench coat. She hadn't seen any other Jedi that wore a trench coat, so she could only assume it was a personal purchase. Though, where he would have gotten the credits for it was a mystery to her... She could see a datapad or five poking out of the pockets of the coat, so maybe that was why he had acquired it. His attire did seem a bit more practical than the usual Jedi garb, just like Ahsoka's skintight robes were also often more practical for combat. Two lightsabers were kept clipped firmly to his belt.

His skin was pale in a way that suggested he spent a lot more time inside than he probably should -reading if the amount of datapads he carried on him was any indication, and his hair was a brown so dark it could almost be black, split and cropped mostly to the left, where the bangs got in his eyes just the slightest. His ocean blue eyes were the picture of focus, as he reeled her in with the Force. If she had to guess his age, Katooni would have placed him to be a bit older than Ahsoka, perhaps a year or two at most. He could be a Knight -if only barely, but he was most likely a Padawan. Though, she could not see a Padawan braid.

Finally, she was set down in front of the human, who sighed and simply raised both eyebrows at her. She flinched slightly but was surprised, when he snorted in amusement. "You know... Even some Jedi _Masters_ are practically _repelled_ by this place currently ("Heh, _Jedi-Away_," he added with a small snort.), and, yet, an itty-bitty _Youngling_ comes charging all by herself straight into the _deep~ Dark, evil~_ depths." He chuckled, and his eyes squinted on small laugh lines. "I'd ruffle your hair fondly if there were any to fondle."

Katooni was completely thrown off by his behavior, and, thus, could only answer, "What." It was really less a question and more a statement of her confusion. The much older boy gave a quick burst of sudden, loud laughter, before coughing into a fist and quickly schooling himself a moment later.

"Oh, you Younglings sometimes make it _too_ easy," he muttered. Suddenly, his gaze became sterner, and Katooni felt the Force almost physically scan her, as it passed through her body. The boy let out a frustrated sigh. "What, _another_ one?"

_'Another one?'_ Katooni wondered in bafflement.

"Tell me," he spoke up, running both his hands through his hair in what looked to be a nervous habit, "Where were you before you came here."

"Um, err... Out in the courtyard... with the rest of my clan," her mouth downturned into a slight scowl at the end.

The teen groaned. "So, it's not as contained as I'd hoped," he muttered, before doing an abrupt about-face and stalking over to boot up a functional archive computer.

"What are you talking about," Katooni asked, glancing over at the Zabrak and shivering at the other girl's glazed, spaced-out expression.

"I'll tell you when I find out, myself," he grumbled. "This concerns me too, after all, and if there's one thing I _hate_, it's having information pertaining to my well-being withheld. I'm not about to be a hypocrite on this. _Crotchety old bastards_." He devolved into low mutterings and curses in what might have been huttese.

"What are you-?"

"Later," he cut her off firmly. "No telling how much time we have till the Council comes running back."

Katooni shut up then. _That_ was a scary thought, to be caught here by the Council. Of course, by that one admission, she now knew this Jedi was here in secret just as she was. He wasn't about to turn her in. Best not to distract him, then.

She turned to the young female Zabrak, whose glazed over eyes still stared at nothing, as she occasionally giggled. The Zabrak girl wore form-fitting black pants and boots, along with black gloves and a sleeveless, black top, that looked rather similar to what Knight Secura wore, showing off the entirety of her pale midriff while completely covering the top half of her torso. A pair a shoto hilts were clipped to her belt.

And on that note, her skin was incredibly pale, lacking the flush usually associated with being healthy. Katooni looked at her face and flinched in alarm. The Zabrak had short, midnight black hair pulled into a low bun at the nape of her neck. If not for the assortment of tiny red horns poking out on top of her head, the girl could have easily passed as human. Then her eyes... Katooni shivered. She didn't know what color they should have been, but right now they glowed the golden orange of immersion in the Dark side, and her skin was pale, riddled with black veins in places.

"Uh... _hello_?" Katooni offered tentatively. "Are you... alright?"

The Zabrak gave a sudden shudder and then turned her head to Katooni. The Tholothian backed up a step in apprehension at the other girl's piercing, golden gaze.

Suddenly, a hint a sentience seemed to breech the dazed girl's body as she blinked, and her face broke out in a wide grin. She suddenly jumped forward, getting rather uncomfortably inside Katooni's personal space. "_Hi there_!" Katooni yelped and skittered backwards, as the Zabrak laughed. The horned girl stuck out a gloved hand. "I'm _Maris_! Maris Brood! What's _your_ name?!"

Suddenly feeling very intimidated by the outgoing girl, who was standing before her and practically _blasting_ Dark side presence, Katooni cringed away from her outstretched hand slightly and then immediately felt bad for doing so to the obviously friendly person.

She heard a snort from her side and looked to the older Jedi, who she _still_ didn't know the name of. "So, the zealot brat finally awakens from her unending worship; will _wonders_ never cease?"

Maris scowled heavily at him, golden eyes flashing angrily. "Oh shut up, you stuck-in-the-mud bantha aft! You clearly don't know anything about the Dark side! How could something that feels so _right_ be wrong? I've never felt more _alive_, and I'm never letting this feeling go again!"

He turned his gaze away from the computer screen to the girls to glare. "All things in moderation," he said simply. "You are delving too deep, letting yourself be led around by your emotions like an ignorant little puppy, not leashing them tightly and guiding to where they _should_ go. And you're _completely_ ignoring the Light; there's no balance in what you're doing." When Maris stuck her tongue out at him childishly, he sneered and turned back to the screen in exasperation.

Katooni just gaped at him. He didn't even really _try_ to Jedi lecture Maris. He hadn't made any indication the other girl should stop using the Dark side completely. He'd just said she was using _too much_, that she wasn't finding a balance. That was rather un-Jedi-like of him. And what the hell was this _balance_ stuff about.

Maris scoffed and turned back to Katooni. "_So_, what is it?"

"Huh?" Katooni said unintelligently.

Maris rolled her glowing, golden eyes. "Your _name_. What is it? I introduced myself already, after all. It's rather rude of you not to respond."

"Oh, uh... It's Katooni. My name's Katooni."

"No last name?" Maris prodded. Katooni shook her head, and Maris shrugged. "Temple-raised from birth, then." Feeling vaguely offended, Katooni gave the other girl a glare, only to get waved off. "_Mah_, don't be like that. It's nothing personal; it just means somewhere out there I've got a clan, and you don't."

_'Was that supposed to be reassuring?!'_ Katooni fumed silently. That was worse than any sort of simple insinuation. After a moment of blinking, Maris seemed to recognize she had only made it worse but said no more on the subject, realizing anything else she might tack on as an 'apology' would probably do more harm than good.

They were both awkwardly silent for a bit, leaving Katooni free to stew in her rage and cool down, the only sound to be heard the clicking of the older male Jedi's fingers flying hastily over the keyboard. It really didn't last long, before Maris got bored.

"_So_, who's your Master?" exclaimed Maris enthusiastically, grinning expectantly.

"I- I don't have one yet," Katooni grit out; this girl really had a knack for asking the awkward questions, and she was deathly blunt. "I'm still a Youngling."

Maris blinked furiously as though she couldn't believe that in the slightest. "Really? _Still?_ I'm a Padawan; I got my Master, when I was seven."

Katooni did a sudden spit-take. Seven? _Seven?!_ Just what kind of raw talent did it take to get yourself apprenticed that early? Did Maris _really_ think that everyone got apprenticed so quickly. _Surely_, she must have realized she had to be exceptionally gifted to- Katooni's line of confused thought ended abruptly. _Of course~_. Of course, her Master didn't tell her how special that was. Jedi were supposed to practice humility, and a child told at an early age how prodigal they were was liable to get a big head over it. That was no reason to put it off forever, however, to keep her completely out of the loop on how things work. Just where exactly had she been to not know these things?

"Maris," Katooni started slowly, "Younglings are selected for Padawan-ship at around age fifteen. Especially skilled and powerful cases might be taken on a year or two early, but no earlier. Master Skywalker, _the Chosen One_, was appointed a Master at nine, and I hear it was a point of _major_ contention at the time." Maris stared at her blankly. "You got appointed a Master at _seven_ years old, and I don't think you were ever told just how significant that is. Whether you realize it or not, you must be _powerful_ with the Force, because I just can't see _any_ _Youngling_ being _skilled_ enough to gain an Master at that age. I'm twelve years old, and I'm nowhere _near_ ready for the trails ahead of the standard Padawan."

Maris blinked her golden-ringed orbs of sight at Katooni in disbelief. "Seriously?" Katooni nodded. "Why wouldn't he tell me then?"

"_Because_, you're powerful, and therefore, _dangerous_, and they're scared of you -of power particularly," came the human's voice from behind her. Both Katooni and Maris jumped in surprise; they hadn't noticed his approach.

"_Geez_, you nearly scared the crap right out of me! I appreciate the help, but I have anal muscles!" Maris snapped hotly, glaring at him, but her features screwed up in confusion. "Dangerous? Scared? What the kriff are you talking about?"

"_My_, _my_, such filthy language from such a... _nice_... young lady. How very unbecoming, _truly_," he chided jokingly, looking entirely too amused at her anger, only for Maris to scowl harder.

"Well, come on! Tell me. Out with it, damn it," demanded Maris. Katooni was interested in this too, and it seemed the older human boy had found what he was looking for by now and had done some work on the side.

"Fine then, but I'll need one thing from you," he said. He made a wrenching motion with his hand. Maris hissed in pain, as several drops of blood wrenched themselves free through her pale skin and went to hover above the boy's hand and conjoin into a single orb.

"Stang it, that hurt!" Maris snarled. He ignored her and drew a small, calculator-like device from one of his pockets, ejecting a tiny, glass slide from the device.

Katooni looked on in fascination, while Maris let out a string of curses someone her age really shouldn't know. "How did you do that?" He glanced briefly at her for elaboration. "With the Force, I mean."

He clucked his tongue, placing the blood in the slide and then reinserting the slide into the device. "It's called Force Orb; I'm the first one my Master has taught it to. It was originally created to help you breath underwater by drawing air into a bubble around your head, but it can be repurposed to contain and trap other things outside of the water... like blood for example. You can also use it as a prison for opponents if you so happen to be powerful enough."

Katooni nodded, it sounded pretty useful to be able to breath underwater without gear. But there was that one thing that had been bugging her about this whole encounter.

"Who's your Master, then? Also I don't believe you told us your name," Maris, as seemed to be the usual, went right ahead and voiced her thoughts. What Katooni took from that utterance was that these two didn't know each other previously and had quite likely only just met today -same as her.

"Didn't I?" he chuckled. At their small glares, he relented. "No, I suppose I didn't. I'll bet I seem pretty damn suspicious. My apologies." He gave a small nod of his head. "Yan Kuroro, Padawan learner to Master Kit Fisto, at your service," he snarked with a mock bow.

Katooni's eyes widened in surprise; Maris looked slightly impressed before she went right back to scowling at him. The device in Yan's hand beeped twice; he looked at it and whistled quietly in appreciation.

Both girls were still out of the loop here. "What is that?" Katooni asked pointedly.

Yan smirked. "It's a midichlorian counter. It's an easy way to check someone's connectivity to the Force."

"And you just freaking carry one around _on_ you? How is that even portable?" Maris snorted.

Yan rolled his eyes. "My philosophy is that it is best 'to have and not need, rather than need and not have'."

Katooni frowned. "That's not a Jedi tenant. We're supposed to avoid avarice."

"So painfully naïve," Yan said with a roll of his blue eyes. "It's not greed if it has _purpose_. The situation with me is rather the same as a government gathering supplies to distribute to starving people. It's not like the things I collect are all necessarily for _me_. As long as it's actually used, it's fine. Besides, there's a _reason_ only Master Fisto would take me on as a Padawan. In general, I don't just _bend_ Jedi suggestions; I tend to stomp them into the ground, lite 'em on fire, spit on the ashes, and then build a completely new tenant on the wasteland left behind," he finished deadpan.

There was quiet unnerved silence from the two girls, before Maris began cackling a little in her strange, unhinged manner. "You might not be such an unbearable stiff, _after all_!"

"I'll take that as a _compliment_," muttered Yan. "_Anywho_, I was right. Still surprised the _hell_ out of me, though. Your midichlorian count per cell is pretty damn high."

"Well, what is it?"

"23,000 per cell," Yan grinned, only to stumble a little at Maris's blank face. He had to remind himself that this girl was apparently more than a little disconnected from Jedi society and, well... _society_ in general.

"And that means _what_ exactly?"

He sighed. "Well, it's not exactly as up there as Master Skywalker's count, but... _Basically_, with the right training, you _could eventually_ be more powerful than Grandmaster Yoda..." He trailed off.

"W-wow, that's amazing," Katooni breathed in slight disbelief.

"Yeah, it kinda' is, _but_..." Maris prodded, sensing there was more.

"But there is this little _thing_, though..." Yan sighed, catching sight of her pensive expression.

"Ah, the obligatory _catch_," Maris scowled, folding her arms. Yan nodded along with her knowingly.

"They don't really intend for her to _ever_ actually reach that potential, because she has a ridiculously strong -no, _ludicrously_ _powerful_\- Dark side affinity," Yan finished seriously.

"Dark side affinity? What's that?" Katooni asked, eyes wide, feeling a slow, creeping dread at what information would accompany the answer.

Yan's posture stiffened slightly into a mockery of what Katooni recognized as the universal Jedi lecture mode, as he closed his eyes. "It's actually something that's kept pretty tightly under wraps; only Masters are supposed to know. You can't tell anyone I told you," he said, cracking his right eye open at them.

The girls nodded in agreement. "Hey, how do you know about it then?" Maris inquired with a frown.

Yan shrugged and smirked mysteriously. "That's for _me_ to know, and you to _maybe_ find out if I ever feel like it." And that was apparently all they were going to get from him on that front. "Everyone has a Force affinity," he began. "Your affinity is something you're born with that will never change. It can't; it's part of your very being, your existence, and it determines which side of the Force you'll naturally be drawn to and have an easier time using. _I_ theorize affinities are a way for the Force to encourage a semblance of Balance. There are, of course, only two, Light and Dark, but Dark side affinities are incredibly rare. They're like one in a hundred. No-one knows why it is this way; it just is. The Jedi keep records of our affinities on our profiles, and their more advanced midichlorian counter is what scans for it.

Affinities also differ in strength. The signs are different all around but similar. For example, one person has a weak Dark side affinity. It's there, but the only noticeable differences between them and another Jedi is that they might be way more outgoing or aggressive than seems normal. Another person, however, might have a Dark side affinity so strong, they use the Dark side without even realizing they are doing it. That's what you have, Maris, and that's why the Jedi are afraid of you and your potential.

When Ahsoka let out that pulse of the Dark side, you didn't even stand a _chance_ in hell of repressing your affinity. It's just plain been repressed for far too long, and somehow Ahsoka's pulse has actually _magnified_ it. It might be impossible to fully suppress now. You've got a Dark side affinity as well, Katooni; that's what likely drew you here. Heck, even _I've_ got a Dark side affinity, a pretty strong one too; it's part of _why_ I am who I am. And even though it doesn't look it, I'm under a rather annoyingly frustrating amount of strain right now."

The two girls were stunned to silence. "W-w-what?" Katooni breathed out in a horrified squeak. This was _not_ happening; that just _couldn't_ be true. She couldn't believe it; she really didn't want to think about how she'd have to keep suppressing the Dark side like this. It'd been such a struggle, and she hadn't been affected for more than an hour at best! She couldn't deal with this. Was this what Ahsoka had been dealing with?! Was this what the Council had been attacking her over?! Katooni started to hyperventilate a little; her world was crashing down around her.

She felt fear -terror even. The Force flared, and her flimsy control shattered to _nothing_ with a suddenness she couldn't hope to respond to. The Dark side rushed into her, feeding on that fear, creating its power loop, flowing in and out and around, fearing what people would think of her, fearing expulsion from the Order for her condition, the feelings _evolving_, becoming distress, desperation, then, suddenly -almost spontaneously, turning to _anger_, anger at the Jedi for keeping such a dangerous secret from everyone, anger at herself for being too utterly _weak_ to resist the pull in its dark depths, even anger at Ahsoka for unknowingly doing this to her and unknown others and not taking responsibility. Her emotions were wild and raw, and she suddenly could not stop feeling every single solitary thing she had ever repressed all at once, and she just wanted it to-

"_Hey_!"

Katooni suddenly found herself engulfed in an embrace, waves of the Light side poured into her, soothing her frazzled nerves and drawing away her distress. She felt the Force helping her mental anguish to ebb away, as a hand stroked her back. She felt the Dark side retreat slowly to near dormancy and sighed in relief, letting herself sink away into the blissful comfort radiating off the human Padawan, as he just held her in his arms. For a moment, she just wanted to let her consciousness slip away, and-

"_Oi_, don't you be falling asleep on me, now," Yan chided suddenly. Katooni jerked a little and yawned, overcome with sudden and intense drowsiness, as if all the energy had been spent from her. She nodded tiredly and reluctantly pulled away, swaying a little and eyelids fluttering.

"What... What was... _that_...?" she slurred slightly. "It was... really... _really_ good..."

_'_Might_ have overdone it _just_ a bit,'_ he sighed mentally, eyebrow twitching. Yan then shook his head and smiled fondly. "They always did say I was good with the kids," he murmured, before giving the Tholothian a few pats on the head. "Just a little something I picked up from the minders in the Youngling nursery. Don't worry your pretty little head about it too much." She blushed lightly in childish indignation, and he chuckled.

He stood up and inhaled sharply. "I could probably count on both my hands alone the number of Dark side affinities in the Jedi, including Ahsoka, of course," he added with a smirk and got a nod from the drowsy Katooni. "It's amazing to have three of us meet here together like this. There could be others, but they're probably scattered across the galaxy with their own secret Masters." He looked sharply to Maris. "Won't your Master be looking for you?"

She shook her head and looked rather unnervingly gleeful, golden eyes glittering. "He died. I felt that liar's death." She looked a bit disturbingly smug, and Yan didn't quite know how to respond to that, so he didn't.

"Dooku... killed someone. It was probably him," Katooni piped up before swaying some more.

"Good," Maris stated with finality.

"_Oh my_," sighed Yan exaggeratedly. "Then I suppose -_being me_\- it would be terribly wrong of me _not_ to take in a _grieving_ young Padawan for the night and possibly _week_ to help her get over her _tragic_ loss, which would take some time, considering that Dark side affinity I have absolutely _no_ knowledge of. I might also, be inclined to provide comfort for a traumatized Youngling too. She _did_ see a Master killed right in front of her. After all, I'm known to be just _fantastic_ with children." His oceanic eyes glittered deviously, and Maris matched his grin with her own. "It's almost like Fate, except we've got something a _bit_ more tangible."

"The Force," chimed Maris.

"Of _course_," replied Yan in rhyme, smirking.

Katooni was still _way_ too out of it to catch anything, and this was all really going over her head. Whatever Yan had done, it was damn _potent_!

Yan sighed and picked up the Youngling, who snuggled into him immediately. "Hey, brat," he said to Maris. "Hop on my back; we're taking the second floor exit." Muttering some choice words, Maris complied, and Yan Force leaped up over the balcony. Once he landed, Maris quickly hopped off him.

"Wait, where are we even going?" Maris asked, watching curiously, as Yan briefly snapped his fingers in a fit of remembrance and dug a small card out of his coat pocket, tossing it over the balcony. Maris tracked its descent with compounded interest.

"Didn't I already tell you? My quarters; I'll set you two up with some beds," Yan replied, as they walked to the door. He looked at Maris. "Alright, stick close to me, and I'll shield your Force presence. Also, under_ no circumstances_ should you show _anyone_ your eyes. I'll do all the talking. We can work something out for your affinity problem later at my quarters."

* * *

**Serenno:**

Count Dooku strode into his personal office in his palace on Serenno. After escaping the temple, the rest of the journey back to his home planet had been entirely uneventful, save for him using a good portion of that time to heal the unconscious Ahsoka's wounds to an agreeable and easily stable condition. There was nothing life-threatening about them any more, and a little lingering pain would do her wonders for learning one of her first Sith lessons. He had had some droids transport the teenage Togruta to her pre-prepared room, while he went to immediately inform Lord Sidious of his success.

Dooku sent out the signal for the holocommunicator on his desk and kneeled at once, as the cloaked and hooded figure of his Master appeared only moments later, shrouded deeply in his heavy, oppressing Dark side presence.

"I _presume_ you have brought good news?" Sidious drawled dangerously.

"Yes, my Master," Dooku responded immediately, ignoring the threatening tone. "Tano has been retrieved and is already steeped in the Dark side. Rather conveniently, she was in a losing deadly confrontation with several Jedi, when I rescued her. Her hesitation to join us was nearly nonexistent."

Darth Sidious's wrinkled lips curled up in a devious smile, as he cackled. "Good~. _Very Good_~. This must be the will of the Dark side in action. I am pleased, Lord Tyranus."

"What is your bidding, Master?" the Serenno Count inquired.

"Train her as you would any other Acolyte," Sidious stated. "My plans are nearing their completion. All the pieces are nearly in their proper places. By the end of this year, my ambitions shall come to fruition, the Clone Wars will end, and... there shall be peace."

"It will be done... my Master," Dooku replied, as the holoprojector flickered off. The Count paused, his attention caught, as he stood. "It seems our guest has finally awakened..."

* * *

**Moments Later:**

The first thing Ahsoka Tano noted before she opened her eyes was that, _'This bed is _way_ too comfortable to be my apartment.'_ The _second_ thing to occur most prominently to her was that her entire body ached like crazy. "_Erk_\- Ow ow _ow_," she hissed quietly.

_'Where am I? What happened?'_ Ahsoka wondered; it came back to her a moment later. _'Right, the Temple, the Jedi Council, kriffing Windu... and Count Dooku. My life is so screwed up; it's amazing how I ended up in this situation.'_

Her eyes cracked open to the sight of an ebony ceiling, lit by slender, rectangular, yellow ceiling light bulbs, that left the room comfortably dimmed yet somehow completely and easily perceptible. Blinking a little, Ahsoka groaned and glanced around at the room from the queen-sized bed she currently occupied.

The room was decently sized at about 18 by 16 feet, and all the walls were the same chiseled ebony color as the ceiling. There were two doors; one likely went to a conjoined washroom, while the other was obviously the exit. In relation to the door, which Ahsoka assumed was the exit, her bed was in the far right corner of the room, while the bathroom door was opposite that on the left side of the room. There was a large, elegant, black dresser, riddled with various decals carved into it, hip height and very wide, with a dressing mirror at one end in the right closer corner of the room. Aside from these things, the rest of the room was a rather Spartan.

Ahsoka closed her eyes once more and sighed at the feeling of sinking into the embrace of the soft sheets and mattress. She _really_ needed to get up, but she was just so damn comfortable right now.

Pouting mentally, Ahsoka rolled over onto her stomach and sloppily tossed her legs over the side of the bed. When even this simple motion caused a chain reaction of phantom pains to shoot up her body, Ahsoka groaned in annoyance and began pulling the Light side of the Force into herself, running its healing powers through her limbs and abdomen. The creeping coolness helped sooth her discomfort very little, unfortunately, but it was at least _something_.

Grumbling, Ahsoka huffed out a tired exhale and jerked herself up to standing in a flash. There was a second of blinding vertigo that died away momentarily, as the Togruta gathered her thoughts and tried to decide her next move. She wasn't entirely sure where she was; though, she figured Dooku was somewhere close by.

Rolling her shoulders, Ahsoka pressed her fingers into the small of her back, arched her body, feeling several satisfying pops along with pains, and yawned. Glancing around again, Ahsoka's eyes caught sight of two lightsaber hilts laying side-by-side on the dresser. She wondered how she could have missed them; perhaps the angle of the bedposts had obscured her vision. Suddenly, noting the lack of a familiar weight on her hips, Ahsoka realized those must be _her_ 'sabers.

Ahsoka strode over quickly and plucked up her weapons up and clipped them to her belt with a sigh at the comforting, familiar weight once again on her hips. Suddenly, she blinked in surprise and confusion. These _weren't_ her robes, however. She turned to the full-length mirror beside her and blinked again in pleasant surprise.

The black robes she currently wore were form-fitting but not skintight like her usual red jumpsuit. They were light and hugged her frame, looking like something Anakin might wear but tailored for a female build and with a black pseudo-skirt and pants closely resembling her Jedi ones. Also as a bonus, the whole ensemble was damn comfy, flowing with her movements and not chafing at all. Ahsoka noticed a pair a tight black gloves were laid out on the dresser, and a pair of black boots sat at the base of the mirror. She quickly slipped both gloves and boots on and stepped back to take a look at herself in the mirror again.

Ahsoka nearly gaped at how the black clothing worked so well for her. Garbed in flowing black robes with her golden, glowing eyes glittering in the dim light of the room, Ahsoka was a picture of a Sith Lady. She pressed a gloved hand up against her reflection in shock. _'I look really _good_ like a Sith, and... I can't believe how much the idea actually _excites_ me!'_ Idly, she noticed the black veins weren't quite so prominent on her orange skin and white lekku anymore. Perhaps her body was finally starting to adjust to the constant influxes of the Dark side. She also didn't feel the need to pull away from the Dark side. The sight of her golden eyes no longer really unnerved her; in fact, after what she'd just gone through, they were really quite appealing and a badge of pride of sorts, marking her as someone with power great enough in the Dark side of the Force to have it visibly show. So great was her shock and immersion in her thoughts, that she hardly noticed, when the door slid open.

"If you're quite done," drawled a familiar voice.

Ahsoka jumped a little in surprise and spun on her heel to see Dooku, arms crossed, standing in the doorway and looking wryly amused. "Err... _Yes_?"

"It's always the _robes_," he muttered under his breath.

"What?"

Dooku ignored her with practiced ease. "I had a droid take your measurements when we arrived. Those were tailored for you quickly enough. You should be more mindful of your surroundings; if I was an assassin, you would be dead."

Ahsoka blinked slowly a few times, and then her eyes narrowed, cheeks heating up slightly. "_You_ changed me?" Ahsoka asked warily, totally ignoring the bit about the assassin.

Dooku snorted derisively. "Don't flatter yourself, _child_; such a chore is beneath me. I had the medical droid do it." He turned and walked out of the room. "Now, follow me, Apprentice. It's time for your first lesson."

"Yes, Master," Ahsoka groaned, reluctantly -but easily- slipping back into the role of the student. Feeling vaguely insulted but relieved nonetheless, she quickly complied with his order, leaving the room in a hurry, even as her muscles twinged and throbbed painfully in remembrance of their previous strain. This was Count Dooku, after all; it probably wouldn't be the best idea to look weak.

Ahsoka exited her new room into a long hallway and hurried to walk side-by-side with the Sith Lord, who was now apparently her teacher. Glancing around, Ahsoka couldn't help but be impressed by the palace. The interior was just as dimly lit as her room -save where there were windows- and lavishly decorated with many statues and elaborate paintings along the ebony walls. Whatever _else_ could be said about Dooku, he did have taste.

Every once and a while the two would pass by a droid doing some unknown task or another, but none of the automatons made any attempt to speak with them. The silence became nearly deafening, with Dooku saying nothing and Ahsoka focusing mostly on healing herself while moving, a serious challenge (as in, she was having no luck with it at all currently).

"Tell me," Dooku suddenly asked, as they walked, breaking the silence, "why _did_ you begin to use the Dark side?"

Ahsoka frowned at the question but thought it best to answer. "Well, at first, it was because I had almost literally no choice..." Dooku raised a silver brow in curiosity; he'd get the full story on _that_ later. "But eventually, I started to see the Force -both sides- more for what they really were. In the end, I suppose I realized there is no true good or evil; there are far too many shades of grey on both sides for that. There are simply infinite possibilities and powers in the Force, and, however, there are those who are simply too weak of body or mind to not be consumed by that knowledge. It takes a strength of mind and character that most are not trained to have."

Dooku nodded in agreement. "This is true; it is folly to fully attempt to subjugate one side or the other." He plucked at his beard thoughtfully. "I shall tell you a tale." He looked to see Ahsoka's interest and continued. "In ancient days, the Jedi were the first and only collaboration of Force sensitives. Even in those days, however, they feared the scope and raw consuming power of the Dark side. They shunned it with religious fervor and tending to bring about a subtle end to many who saw otherwise.

Fortunately, an observant few became aware of this and organized their experiments into the Force in secret. They were soon ousted in due time, of course, _but_ had already become too powerful for the Jedi Council to do away with quietly. They pleaded their case logically before the Jedi Council; their conviction was strong in the possibility of the Dark side being used for the good of all just as well as the Jedi used the Light."

He went quiet for a moment, and Ahsoka's white brow markings furrowed in anger. "I can only guess what came next."

Dooku nodded. "The Jedi Council's paranoia and fear were too great. The Dark side's fullness and mighty potential terrified them to all-consuming levels. They immediately expelled those brave Jedi from the Order and banished them to the depths of the Outer Rim.

_However_, the former Jedi quickly began to construct their own Order. They called themselves Sith, and then created a creed that was less a _guideline_ like the Jedi Code and more... a statement of how the universe works." He paused and cleared his throat. "_Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall set me free_."

Dooku paused to let those words sink into his new pupil. Ahsoka mouthed the first phrase of Sith Code a few times, mulling over what the ancient Sith had meant it to be. _'Peace is a lie, huh? I can see how they would say that in the sense of a statement. No matter how much the Jedi might want to believe it, the Galaxy is simply too vast. There will always be conflict in one form or another. Heck, nature itself is conflict. Stronger plants choke out the weaker, herbivores devour the plants, and carnivores eat the smaller creatures._

_Politicians galaxy-wide constantly bicker and squabble, pointlessly competing for positions, laws, and money. Even Senator Amidala has seen her fair share of firefights, and she's one of the kindest, most passive people I know! There will always be disagreements between individuals, and there will always be conflict in same form or the other. Therefore, there can never truly be complete peace. There is only passion. Yeah, I can see how civilization would get nowhere if no one had any inclination to change anything. I wonder-'_

Dooku continued suddenly, breaking the Togruta from her thoughts. "The Jedi eventually discovered the Sith; it was inevitable, and they were... _less_ than happy. The Sith 'Code' was everything the Jedi considered themselves _not_ to be, and the casual displays of Dark side ability repulsed them. The Sith Council reached out to the Jedi in peace, wishing -despite everything- to work alongside them for the betterment of the Galaxy. They were rebuffed rather violently, and the tension between the two Orders could only grow from then on.

_Eventually_, somewhere, sometime, _someone_ went too far, and it resulted in an all-out war. The Jedi and Sith both began to lose their way at some point during the course of the war. The mounting pressure caused some Sith to delve farther into the Dark side than they were ready to handle, many began to resort to anger and rage as their primary emotions with constant battle, and the Sith Order was slowly warped and twisted into something entirely different from what it had been, becoming what the Jedi had always accused it of being from the beginning. This would eventually culminate in the power-hungry Darth Bane's asinine Rule of Two, which would annihilate the Sith from the inside.

The Jedi, on the other hand, became arrogant; they felt justified -vindicated- in their conviction of the Dark side's 'Evil'. That's with a capital 'E' by the way. Many of them began to consider themselves downright holy and practically necessary for the Galaxy, itself, to function. Unfortunately, no one has really done much significant enough to prove them wrong."

Ahsoka soaked it all in with a scowl. So it wasn't just her, now, in this time. The Jedi really had been making a bit of a mess of things for beings like her, who just wanted to use the Dark side to help, from the start, hadn't they?

The sound of doors sliding smoothly and automatically open caught Ahsoka's attention, and she looked around, as the two entered one of Dooku's palace's courtyards. Dozens of fascinating black obelisks, like two pyramids fused together by the bottom side, covered in runes and etchings, sat lodged in angular pedestals scattered around the stone courtyard. Ahsoka got the sense there was a lingering power about them, when she felt them out with the Force.

"Woah," Ahsoka muttered in awe and slight apprehension. "What are _these_ things."

Dooku smirked. "These obelisks will be a key component of your practical training in the Force. They are covered in Sith runes that cause them to resist being manipulated with the Force and emulate the natural Force barrier surrounding an organic, sentient being. This will, consequently, make them quite difficult to lift. The runes can be adjusted for greater weight and resistance; I will show you at a later time, so you might challenge yourself." Ahsoka looked at him curiously. "If you can lift every single one of the obelisks and replace them with their runes at the highest setting, then you will be able to just as easily restrain entire groups of Jedi Masters -though perhaps not ones on the level of the Council- as easily as breathing. Even I have not yet accomplished that feat; you will have a long journey before you." Ahsoka grinned in nervous anticipation, as Dooku smirked unnervingly, eyes glittering with mischievous malice. "Now then, let us begin."

* * *

**AN:**

**Somehow, this was even longer than my last chapter. IT DOESN'T EVEN FEEL LIKE MUCH HAPPENED IN THIS ONE, EITHER!**

**Sorry if this chapter seemed a bit boring with a lack of action, but the interlude was needed for character introduction.**

**Finally decided on Ahsoka's Sith name, but she won't get it for a while. She's got to earn that title. Heheheheheh...**

**I've been searching for other lesser known Star Wars characters to bring in, and Maris Brood fit the profile perfectly for what I was looking for. Even better, this actually works canonically! Maris was a Padawan from a young Youngling age due to her potential and spent all her time training with an unnamed Master aboard his ship in space, having practically zero outside contact, till Order 66, when Shaak-Ti took up her training. So I just got rid of her Master as cannon-fodder against Dooku, and voilà! Free character to do with as I wish! :D **

**Also this chapter -as you can see- introduces the first OC, Yan Kuroro. Not sure what role he'll play, but it will probably be a semi-major role as Katooni and Maris's protection, guide, and pseudo moral compass. All three will play important roles in the story's future though. No other OC will play a role even half as important if they do even show up.**

**I may have slightly screwed up Jedi/Sith history, but events of the far past are way too vague. For all I know, the Jedi/Sith war could have started out exactly as I depicted it did. Meh, it's my story, so as far as this fic goes, it's canon now.**

**This chapter I'm mostly worried about whether I did Katooni right or not. Was she too OOC? Or was she just fine? Let me know, so I can edit if it's too horrible.**

**I will explain in the next chapter what Yan and Maris were doing in the library, and we'll be seeing how Yan plans to help Katooni and Maris and what Dooku considers 'training'. R.I.P. Ahsoka's muscles.**

**Chapter Plot: Katooni, angry with the other Younglings, meets Yan Kuroro and an enthusiastic Maris Brood in the library. Dooku reports to Sidious. Ahsoka awakens on Serenno. Dooku gives her a short history lesson on ancient Sith. Ahsoka's Dark side training begins.**

**Also, since I've been looking around for more Dark side characters, I'd like you all to tell me what you think of the future inclusion of these characters as major plot devices: Asajj Ventress, Mother Talzin, Darth Maul, and Jaesa Willsaam. I've also contemplated the idea of making it so that Pong Krell was imprisoned instead of executed, so that I can have him appear too -perhaps around the time Barris escapes from prison. Spoilers. ;)**

**R&amp;R I shall use all flames to fuel the fires of my YOUTH- *COUGH* I mean CREATIVE SPIRIT! Yes, *cough* that's exactly what I meant. XD**


End file.
